Evidence of meeting #46 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was rural.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
Alupa Clarke Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Thank you.
Going back to the municipality, you said that you were not consulted about where community mailboxes would be located. Did you receive a letter or a call telling you that there would be an implementation of this change?
11:15 a.m.
Director of Planning and Development Services, City of Moose Jaw
We did receive a letter and maps that told us where they were going to go.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
11:15 a.m.
Director of Planning and Development Services, City of Moose Jaw
Oh, gosh, I don't remember. It was pretty close to the time. There wasn't a lot of leeway. I think it was within a week or two of it coming.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
Alupa Clarke Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Okay.
What do you think about the idea of reforming the law with regard to Canada Post so that there is a concrete obligation for Canada Post to always consult with any cities when there is change? Do you think that would be a good thing to do?
11:15 a.m.
City Clerk and Solicitor, City of Moose Jaw
Certainly, there would be a common understanding, I believe, at most levels of government that there should be consultation with the citizens who are affected by decisions.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
Alupa Clarke Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
How does the city see the task force results? There were five points. The community mailbox was one of them, and a higher tariff for stamps, for example. One of the conclusions was interesting, I think. They said we should probably close down all the post offices that are now within the huge urban regions to be able to keep the ones in the rural regions.
Would you support this way forward, to close down the offices that used to be rural but because of city growth are now in the big cities?
11:15 a.m.
City Clerk and Solicitor, City of Moose Jaw
In terms of the direction we received from city council, we're limited in what we can provide to the committee. We had no input from our city council in terms of responding to that particular recommendation.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
11:15 a.m.
President, Triple 4 Advertising Ltd.
It's a very different perspective, but again, it can be changed and it won't hurt if it's going to make the company more viable and give us the service we need.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
Alupa Clarke Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
It might be that we make sure to keep the postal offices in the rural regions, which is very important.
Madam Perkins, I just want to make sure that in the blues we get it right. I was confused. Are you against door-to-door or against community mailboxes?
11:15 a.m.
Vice-Chair, Wakamow Aboriginal Community Organization
I'm against community mailboxes.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
Alupa Clarke Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Again, Mr. Watson, how do you think Canada Post should deal with its financial difficulties?
11:15 a.m.
President, Triple 4 Advertising Ltd.
I'm not going to say what I really think here.
11:15 a.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
11:15 a.m.
President, Triple 4 Advertising Ltd.
I liked what they were doing. I thought it was a great thing putting in the postal boxes because it was cutting costs, and again, I'm a senior. But I'm not a senior to that point where I can't walk. I understand those sorts of problems are out there, but when 77% or 71% of the country has them.... They're only going into new subdivisions. I think it's coming across Canada, and that's the way we should continue to go.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
Alupa Clarke Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Do you think that all the propositions and the way going forward to deal with the deficit should all be found inside Canada Post or is there some outside solution? For example, for the workforce of Canada Post, do you think there should be some measures taken to reduce costs?
11:15 a.m.
President, Triple 4 Advertising Ltd.
I have to be very careful when I speak.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
That's very brief. Thank you for that.
Our final five minutes will go to Ms. Shanahan, please.
October 20th, 2016 / 11:15 a.m.
Liberal
Brenda Shanahan Liberal Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC
Thank you very much, Chair.
Thank you to everyone for being here this morning.
As the last speaker, I made a lot of notes and a lot of my concerns have been answered. But I do want to just get back to one thing that you mentioned from the municipality, that you were consulted, actually, when the new developments went in, in the 1990s. What did that look like, just very briefly?
11:15 a.m.
Director of Planning and Development Services, City of Moose Jaw
I'm not sure when it was in the 1990s, but for the most recent ones that I've worked on in the last 10 or 11 years, they have always brought forward a proposal of whether this works, and moved forward from there. We're happy to work with them in the location of the box so that it works within the subdivision.
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
11:15 a.m.
City Clerk and Solicitor, City of Moose Jaw
Yes, I was just going to say that. In those circumstances those are in the development of new subdivisions where there's a whole new infrastructure, new roads, new service lines running in. That's the most appropriate time to coordinate those sorts of decisions.