Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome to Yellowknife, everyone.
I've been a resident of Yellowknife for over 30 years. I have served on Yellowknife City Council. I am currently a member of the Legislative Assembly here for the Northwest Territories, representing one of seven Yellowknife ridings. I have personally visited 29 of the 33 communities here in the Northwest Territories. I am a long-time philatelist, or postal historian, a member of several philatelic organizations, and I currently serve in a volunteer capacity with The Royal Philatelic Society of Canada. I am on the board of the Postal History Society of Canada. Although I don't speak on behalf of these organizations, I did consult with them in terms of preparing my speaking notes today.
I also served on Canada Post's stamp advisory committee for six years, and I have authored many articles on the postal history of northern Canada and exhibited nationally and internationally. I have attached a philatelic resumé with my speaking notes and have provided that to your clerk.
I have a couple of main things that I'd like to talk over with you today. First, the importance of the public postal system in the Northwest Territories, and then I have a few remarks about support for organized philately in Canada.
I'll say a little bit about the importance of a public postal system for the Northwest Territories. As the previous speaker mentioned, we have many rural and remote communities here in the Northwest Territories, some that are not connected by roads. Several of our smaller communities still don't even have post offices, and I'll give you a couple of examples. The Hay River Reserve has 325 people, and no post office. Edzo, about an hour away from Yellowknife, has about 500 people, and they don't have a post office.
In any event, I know that Canada Post has a universal service obligation, and I think there is really a need to keep Canada Post in the public sector to ensure that all our northern residents have access to universal and affordable services.
The previous speaker also mentioned the lack of banking facilities in many of our smaller northern communities, and I think this is a void that Canada Post can and should fill.
I think there is also a role for Canada Post possibly in revitalizing the nutrition north program. Previously we had a food mail program here that covered northern Canada. It's been changed now to a retail subsidy program, but I think that, in revitalizing more affordable food for the north, there may be a role for Canada Post to support that.
I'd like to move on to support for organized philately if I can, Mr. Chair. I reviewed the 2015 annual report for Canada Post Corporation, and I could only find one line item that says “other” for $518 million. I couldn't actually find what the philatelic revenues are for Canada Post. I looked at the task force report, and the word “philately” doesn't even appear anywhere in the report.
I think there is a need for Canada Post to reinvest in organized philately in this country to help promote Canada around the world and to help celebrate our heritage. In my opinion, there has been a very limited reinvestment of philatelic revenues back into the hobby of specialized or organized philately. At the local level it would be helpful for post offices to stock commemorative stamps and to make sure that philatelic mail is properly cancelled at the regional and national levels. There are four or five national stamp shows. and it would be great if we could get Canada Post to actually have tables where they could sell material.
At the international level, Canada used to host international stamp shows. We had them in 1951, 1978, 1987, and 1996, all in Toronto, but we haven't had one since. It's partly because of the lack of support from Canada Post.
I was at an international stamp show in New York in May of this year. There were 250,000 people who went through the doors over eight days, and I think it brought tremendous economic benefit to the city.
I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have, and I have given a written version and an electronic copy of my submission to your clerk.
Merci.