Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to address the committee today.
My name is Carmen Sterling. I'm the vice-president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities.
For those who are unfamiliar with us, the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities—or SARM, as I'll refer to it—is the independent association that represents all 296 rural municipalities in Saskatchewan.
As the review and study of Canada Post continues, SARM wants to ensure that residents and businesses, including major resource sectors, receive adequate mail and parcel delivery service. Nearly 200,000 people live in Saskatchewan's rural municipalities. RMs are also the primary location for many sectors that drive Saskatchewan's economy, including agriculture, oil and gas, and mining. Hundreds of thousands more live in the rural settings of towns, villages, and resort villages.
Rural residents do not currently receive door-to-door mail and parcel delivery. SARM does not believe that door-to-door service is practical in rural Saskatchewan. Instead, rural residents should still be able to utilize central pickup locations. We also do not oppose the transition to community mailboxes in larger urban centres.
We do, however, strongly oppose the closure of any more walk-in post office locations in rural communities. It is also very important that decisions regarding the number of deliveries a week and the delivery days be made at the community level, as each community has different needs.
While many argue that the world is becoming more and more digital, marking postal delivery as obsolete, rural Saskatchewan continues to be challenged by insufficient broadband. Not only does this impact the decisions of residents and businesses to move to rural areas, but it also makes it very difficult for those in rural settings to rely on digital modes of communication. Mail delivery is therefore still a necessary medium of communication for rural residents and businesses.
SARM also wishes to highlight the fact that the Saskatchewan Transportation Company, a provincial crown corporation, plays a significant role in parcel delivery in rural Saskatchewan. However, financial losses have resulted in the cutting of many bus routes. This further reduces parcel delivery options for those in rural Saskatchewan. As such, we cannot afford to lose any more service in rural Saskatchewan.
Understanding the difficulties Canada Post faces, SARM is not opposed to transitioning some pieces of Canada Post to a privatized model, so long as it can be assured that contractors can provide services at a lower cost while also maintaining the integrity and security of the delivery system. We would also support banks and post offices partnering to share space in rural communities. Both play a vital role in creating vibrant rural communities.
Finally, SARM was also concerned to learn recently that date-stamping is no longer practised by all post offices. Instead, some post offices have the technology to cancel stamps without the use of ink stamps. We have been told that these post offices will now only date-stamp mail when specifically asked to by the sender at the post office.
This is extremely problematic for municipal administrators and, presumably, many other organizations and businesses, as date stamps serve as verification that payments and other important documents were mailed before their deadlines. This ensures that discounts and penalties are charged to senders accordingly. SARM believes that it is very important for all post offices to resume the practice of date-stamping to ensure that municipalities and other businesses and organizations can verify when financial and other important payments or documents were mailed.
In closing, the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities believes that Canada Post must maintain adequate service in rural Saskatchewan and that it must refrain from closing more walk-in post offices in rural Saskatchewan.
On behalf of SARM, thank you for the opportunity to appear before this committee.