Government Operations Committee on Oct. 20th, 2016

[Wayne McGregor]

I guess enhancement would be keeping it at daily.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

So you see no compromise.

[Wayne McGregor]

No, I don't, because there has to be compromise on the other side also.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Are you saying the same?

[Lori Friars]

Yes.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Okay. Fair enough.

Ladies, I just want to get back to the bit about postal banking and payday lenders. We had someone speak who used to be with the industry. He was testifying that people using payday loans are not street people. They're people with jobs and with bank accounts who just cannot access the cash.

How would you see postal banking working? Would you offer a similar service, but only to people without bank accounts? We hear a lot of myth creating that the payday loans people are vultures seeking money from a certain demographic, but it's their demographic that they're working with, and it's people with jobs who need the cash immediately. They also have a 20% crash rate on the cheques that are being cashed and being defaulted on.

How do you see Canada Post having a system set up to go after 20% of people who default on cheques through postal banking?

[Julee Sanderson]

Thank you for the question.

Interestingly enough, I have a background in banking. I worked for Scotiabank for 10 years. At the very same time, I worked at a place called Money Mart in Saskatoon. I don't think it's a common misconception that the people who are attending those places are indeed people who tend to be less fortunate. I appreciate that those payday lenders were implying otherwise, but that was not my experience, and like I said, I worked there for 10 years.

When it comes to postal banking, and if the concern is whether the public would take on a responsibility for it [Technical difficulty—Editor].

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

[Technical difficulty—Editor] What happens the first time Canada Post has to go and repossess grandma's car?

[Julee Sanderson]

I don't see that happening. People aren't cashing cheques worth that much.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Your book that you referred to talks about full banking service.

[Julee Sanderson]

It doesn't reference full banking service.

What it talks about is providing opportunities for people to have a place to put their money, such as a savings account. It gives an opportunity for people to have a place to put their money to access small loans in the event that they were interested in participating in some initiatives that would improve—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Do you think you'll get enough profits out of that to offset the future...? There's no question that it's all—

[Julee Sanderson]

I guess we can all be the judge. We know that five banks made $35 billion last year in profit. I think if Canada Post were able to provide some of those services through postal banking, then most definitely there would be profits involved, and it would hold some of those big banks' fees down somewhat.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Okay.

Ms. Friars, I want to get back to you.

You mentioned issues about seniors and also disabled folks getting to the boxes. You mentioned the one lady that you are aware of who had a fainting spell.

Do you have any statistics? We ask this across the country when we hear about this. Do you have any statistics of any falls or any accidents at any of the mailboxes at all?

[Lori Friars]

No, I don't. It's anecdotal.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

It's anecdotal.

[Lori Friars]

Yes, it's anecdotal.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Have you heard of any others?

[Lori Friars]

No.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Okay. Fair enough.

Ladies, I just want to get back to you. We're probably very short of time.

Across the country it's very different between rural and a big city with the needs for Canada Post. You spoke about Edmonton. That's where I live, and there are 25 Shoppers Drug Mart branches within five minutes of my house. If you ask someone in Edmonton about Canada Post, they say it's at the Shoppers Drug Mart. In the rural areas, where it's not the centre of the city, it's a completely different need.

We have 500 or 700 Canada Post corporate offices in large cities. Would you agree that maybe these should be wound down and turned over to franchised ones, and the money saved be used to subsidize sustaining rural post office boxes?

[Julee Sanderson]

In Saskatoon—I'll use that as an example—there's one corporate retail outlet in a city of over 300,000 people. That corporate retail outlet was right downtown. It had a beautiful office and provided tons of services to Canadians. There was not a franchise office anywhere around downtown. All of downtown has a high percentage of seniors, the elderly, and people with mobility issues living there. Those people—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Would you suggest that one should just be switched over and the money saved to use to help subsidize the rural post office boxes?

[Julee Sanderson]

Switched over to...I don't see the rationale. I don't understand how switching it over to a franchise office is going to save anybody money, because I don't see that. The corporate retail outlet in Saskatoon is costing insurmountable amounts of money when our retail outlet in Saskatoon is providing philatelic and other services, selling stamps. What we're here to talk about is services to Canadians.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

So you're saying they're urban—

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much. We'll leave it at that.