Government Operations Committee on Oct. 20th, 2016

[Julee Sanderson]

That's an interesting question. Thank you for asking.

In terms of our bargaining and what's been happening, there are two tentative agreements that are on the table right now and have not been ratified by the CUPW membership. The voting has to take place sometime shortly. Whether or not the members are satisfied with the results of those tentative agreements is yet to be seen.

In terms of decreased wages—I know you mentioned in particular a decrease in annual leave—would we be willing to take rollbacks? We have been taking rollbacks for years.

I am not making a tremendous amount of money and I've worked at the post office for 18 years. In those 18 years my wages have increased a whole $4.23. I know that my bills and expenses have certainly increased beyond that. If one was going to look at a percentage.... I think that postal workers on the whole understand that what we need to be looking at are initiatives to improve this viable public service that has been paying dividends back into the public purse for years.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Okay.

I see your point, Ms. Sanderson. As I told you, I can understand that a wage reduction is something sad and unfortunate. However, I think the reduction of annual sick days is a step forward given that most Canadians don't have this kind of privilege. I still see your point.

My next question is for Ms. Friars.

Canada Post may deliver mail to seniors once a week. If they have trouble going to the community mailbox, they'll receive the service once a week. Do you think it's a good measure? Are seniors familiar enough with this measure?

[Lori Friars]

No, I don't think that's a good measure. I think that they should receive daily delivery, the same way as everyone else. As for people being aware of that program, I don't think that a lot of people are aware of its existence or how to access it. When they are, they don't necessarily get what they request. They'll get something but not necessarily what they've gone for.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Weir, you have seven minutes, please.

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

My colleague, Mr. Whalen, started this round of questioning by suggesting that the government had only promised a moratorium on conversions to community mailboxes until this consultation happened. However, another Liberal MP, Mr. Casey, acknowledged to this committee that in fact the Liberals had promised to maintain and restore door-to-door mail delivery. Help us out. I'm wondering if the panellists could tell us what they heard from the Liberals during the last election campaign and what they expect the government to do in terms of home mail delivery.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

If I may interject just for a moment, I do this very sparingly and only in terms of accuracy.

Mr. Casey did appear before this committee, but when I asked him specifically at the end of the interventions if he said that the promise by his own government was to “restore home delivery” or to “save home delivery,” he said “save.” No one knows what the interpretation is, but he did not at any time say to “restore home delivery.”

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Okay.

[Julee Sanderson]

Are you directing your question to me?

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

It was to the whole panel, or whoever is interested and can respond—

[Julee Sanderson]

I am interested, and thank you for the question.

I take a fairly great interest in politics, and what's going on. I attended all the meetings that were held in Saskatoon where I live, regarding those who were running and the positions they were taking. I was quite clear in asking them what exactly their positions were, and I understood that most definitely the NDP were in favour of restoring door-to-door delivery, as am I.

I understood, probably halfway through the campaign, that some Liberal candidates came forward and made a very sincere implication, I felt, that they were in favour of restoring door-to-door delivery in addition to the moratorium on the closure.

I want to make this note. We had a flyer in Saskatoon for a Conservative candidate who was running there. That Conservative candidate had our photos, the “save door-to-door” signs on the front of their flyer that they distributed to every door in Saskatoon. They were using our motto, “save door-to-door” on their flyers, yet the Conservative government was opposed to such a thing, and was pushing to implement CMBs across the country.

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Thank you. That was very illuminating.

Yesterday in Yellowknife we heard some very compelling testimony that the quality of service at franchises was not as good as at corporate offices. I think you've made the same point here today, Ms. Krahenbil.

I'm wondering if anyone else on the panel has any thoughts on the quality of service at franchises versus Canada Post outlets?

[Lori Friars]

Their number one concern at a franchise is not the mail, the packages, and the customer.

[Julee Sanderson]

I know in my experience, certainly, in Saskatoon we have a lot of franchise outlets. I have done some testing of the franchise outlets myself where I mailed a package from the corporate retail outlet in Saskatoon with the same measurements, the same weight, the same consistency, and that same package was mailed from a retail outlet, as well as a corporate outlet, and the retail outlet charged us more money to deliver that package.

I thought, okay, maybe I only did this once, let's see if this is going to repeat itself. So we did it four separate times at four different retail locations and at every retail location, we were charged more than we were charged at the corporate outlet, and they had made errors in their packaging and sizing.

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Ms. Krahenbil, you also suggested that Internet services as a line of business might be offered through Canada Post offices. I feel here in Saskatchewan we have excellent rural Internet thanks to SaskTel, a crown corporation, although our provincial government is now threatening to privatize it, so who knows.

How would Canada Post offer Internet services? What would that look like? How would that work?

[Shelly Krahenbil]

What's going to be viable for them would have to be looked at by Canada Post, but I envision.... We go to a hotel. They have business centres. We could have a computer room set up if people wished to use it if they didn't have their own services at home.

If I may make a comment on your question about the franchises, I do not go to franchises because of my being a postmaster in a rural community and I support our corporate offices, but there are occasions when we, as CPAs, are in the cities and we have to do some mailing.

My secretary-treasurer brought to my attention that she went to a franchise at one point. It was close to Christmas, and they did not have the storage space for all the parcels. We, as corporate employees, are trusted. We're bonded. We go through high-security screening. When she was in this franchise, some parcels were in the public area. Anyone could have walked away with them. That's another point about the franchises.

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Thanks for that.

Ms. Friars, I feel your presentation was somewhat constrained by time. I wonder if there were any further points you wish to make about the importance of home delivery and the difficulty with community mailboxes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Ms. Friars will be constrained to about 30 seconds. I apologize for that. Please go ahead.

[Lori Friars]

Most of the things I had to say were what people had told me themselves, like the lady who's blind. She specifically requested that she have a box in a specific spot where she could feel to find it, and didn't get that. Now she has to train herself to have her arm at a certain level to hopefully find the keyhole.

If anything is different on the sidewalk that day, like snow or leaves or if she has a different pair of shoes on, she can't find where to put her key because she's blind.

That's why it's so important to have home delivery. She's quite capable of functioning in her own home.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much.

Madam Ratansi, you have seven minutes, please.

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Thank you very much for such an interesting presentation.

As my colleague mentioned, we want to ensure that we have vibrant communities, that people don't move away from rural areas, so we need to create economic opportunities and growth. I thank you for your presentations.

I understood from the previous presenters that 31% of your population is seniors and out of that, three-quarters do not have door-to-door delivery. Did they ever have door-to-delivery?

[Lori Friars]

Yes.

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

They did. Were they consulted? I guess the city told us they were not consulted.

[Lori Friars]

No.

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

No groups were consulted, so they had no idea. It came as a surprise to them. There was no town hall, nothing by Canada Post. Have you some ideas? No. Nothing.

[Wayne McGregor, President, Moose Jaw & District Senior Association]

No.