Government Operations Committee on Oct. 20th, 2016

[Keith Nixon]

I'll have to fess up and confess that I have not studied the history of it. I wouldn't be able to comment intelligently on the history of that case, but I think the unfair competition points that we make.... I referred earlier to the ability of credit unions to offer postal services in certain communities. When we had that legislation built, there was a rigorous process to go through to get the approval. You're not creating that space in a competitive environment where it is going to cause friction; it would be more in those communities where it would be a combination of services to meet the members' needs. We wouldn't see postal services in large urban areas necessarily being combined.

The competitive rubs with some of the other crown financial sectors have been things such as access to capital for lending. We need to attract deposits to have the liquidity to lend. What would be the source of lending for postal banking?

The other things would be access to capital to create the safety of the financial institution. We need to be profitable enough to build reserves, since reserves are needed for the safety of depositors.

It's those types of things, the full financial services, that would be at issue with us.

[Brenda Shanahan, Liberal, Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC]

Thank you for that. Certainly we recognize that there's a full range of financial services that a bank could offer, and indeed there are banks that have more of a specialty in one or the other.

I just want to put this out to the panel, since I am the final questioner. To sum it all up, do you see Canada Post as being a service or a business? If it is a service, who should pay for it, and if it is a business, should it be held to the same standards as a private sector business?

I'll start briefly with Ms. Friesen.

[Marg Friesen]

In my opinion, based on the population that we serve, we see it as both. We see it as an opportunity for growth in innovative ways, such as was mentioned with postal banking, for the same reasons as my colleague from the credit union has suggested, but we also see it as a primary service. We see it as a public service, an essential service for people to stay connected in their communities, to be provided with opportunities to contribute, and to access community life in general. We see it as those. It's a two-edged sword for us.

[Brenda Shanahan, Liberal, Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC]

Thank you very much.

[Randy Dove]

From our perspective, we also see it as a service. It's really important as far as community engagement and community growth and understanding are concerned.

It's important to make the another comment, which is that we don't really see just a sort of status quo, as in “let's hang on to what was”. I think we are open to considering innovation, whether it's less daily service or some creative thoughts such as that, but I don't think that from an older adult's point of view we would see Canada Post as strictly a business, such that if it doesn't make any money, it has to go away.

[Brenda Shanahan, Liberal, Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC]

Thank you.

Mr. Nixon or Ms. Trobak, would you comment?

[Keith Nixon]

I think we would see it as leaning towards a public service, and it needs to be funded. In terms of its being a business, I think our comments outlined our position. Even our business we see as not profit-motivated but as an access to services that need to be funded and priced in such a way as to afford their delivery. I would lean towards the public service side.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much.

I want to thank you all for your presence here today. Your testimony was excellent.

I would give you the same invitation I've given to all of our panellists: should you have additional information you would like to provide to our committee for our deliberations, you may do so by contacting our clerk directly and submitting your briefs to her.

We will be tabling a report in Parliament sometime towards the latter part of November. If you do have additional information you wish to submit, I'd ask you, please, to do so in the next 10 days or so. That would be extremely helpful.

The meeting is adjourned.