Government Operations Committee on Oct. 20th, 2016

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Mr. Weir, you have seven minutes, please.

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Thanks very much.

I have a question for the Saskatchewan Seniors Mechanism. You spoke about the importance of Canada Post pensions. I'm wondering whether you could elaborate on them, not only as a source of income for retirees, but also as a source of consumer spending in local communities across the province.

[Holly Schick]

Certainly one concern for our organization and for many others is having adequate living income for all people, whether older or of whatever age.

Many people in our country live in poverty. Being able to access an adequate income means being able to participate, having a good quality of life, having a choice in the kind of food you purchase, and being a contributing member of the community in a better way than you could if you didn't have an adequate income. If you can afford transportation, services, and purchasing the things you need in your life, certainly that is contributing big time to the economy.

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Thank you.

A point that I think you and the Voice of People with Disabilities made very strongly was about the importance of door-to-door delivery. I'd like to explore that a little further.

Something we've heard in a few different communities is that it's not simply a matter of making mail accessible to people: it's also valuable to have a letter carrier coming by every day. Sometimes the letter carrier is the person who notices that someone isn't picking up the mail and that perhaps something is wrong; perhaps there is a medical problem.

I wonder whether your organizations could speak to that safeguard.

[Holly Schick]

Certainly that's very true for people who are isolated. Many older adults are isolated because of various medical mobility issues and so on. Often that person can be a big safeguard for them and does notice what's going on and can sometimes raise an alarm if one needs to be raised.

[Marg Friesen]

I would have to agree with my co-presenter here, Holly. Often people are isolated, as Holly mentioned, not only because of being an elder or a senior in our community, but because they have a disability that does not enable them to be as engaged in the community as they would like to be. Having a mail carrier—someone to whom they can relate, someone with whom they can connect on a daily basis—creates a sense of belonging in the community and also creates a sense of “I matter”. That's very important for someone who has a disability or diverse disabilities, and not only the physical aspect of a disability, but mental illness and cognitive or intellectual impairment.

We promote independence in our community and we want people to be able to live independently as long as possible, and having those connections is very important.

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Thanks very much.

In some ways it's funny that we're even having this discussion about the need for door-to-door delivery, because that's a service that's taken for granted in most industrialized countries. We have a federal government now that was elected on a promise to save door-to-door delivery. I'm wondering if you could speak a bit to what you heard during the election, how you interpret those promises, and what you're expecting the current federal government to do in terms of ensuring that the mail is delivered to people's homes.

[Marg Friesen]

As I mentioned in my introduction, we have recently been engaged in consultations with the Government of Canada on what accessibility inclusion looks like, primarily for the disability community and persons with disabilities.

We have a significant concern when it comes to accessibility. Accessibility means different things to different people, since there are different levels of accessibility, and being able to contribute in a way that makes someone feel like a valued citizen is important for folks.

The nature of the discussions is positive, I would think, and in having access to postal service, we have to talk about accessibility and what that looks like for all citizens of Canada. Rather than excluding the disability community, we need to engage the disability community and folks to find solutions that are acceptable and adequate. Public services are important for all people, and we need to continue to hear the voices of people who would be impacted by changes. Those significant changes in public services—primarily we're talking today about postal services—greatly impact people and their quality of life. We will continue to have that dialogue, and we're open to opportunities such as this to do so.

[Holly Schick]

One thing we have talked a bit about in our organization is that there needs to be consultation such as this one, but also consultation with people in some of our rural communities about creative solutions to some of the issues. One of the things that was mentioned in the material that came out from your committee was reducing the mail delivery so that it's not every day. That could be a really creative solution. You're still be able to provide the service to people, but it just would not be as frequent.

Those are the kinds of things that we might be able to look at and still serve the population.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much.

We'll now go to Madam Ratansi for seven minutes, please.

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

Thank you very much.

I was listening to your presentation. I don't think I've heard from any credit unions, but I'm glad you came, and welcome.

We are struggling with how to make Canada Post viable in the future. What does it look like? What are some of the options it has? How can we synergize or leverage on the assets it has, the real estate, and its vast network?

Mr. Nixon, what sort of remote areas do you go to? How remote are remote areas?

[Keith Nixon]

In Saskatchewan's credit unions, we have branches in all corners of the province. I would say probably the remote ones would be as far north as Buffalo Narrows, and communities like that.

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

Are there any communities that you feel are not being served? We hear that as a constant theme. To reduce the economic divide, we need people to have access to cash or finances.

[Keith Nixon]

I think we'd probably acknowledge that we have a common view that some of the more northern communities are the ones that are maybe less served in that physical presence kind of way, and that was one of the things behind this innovation of creating a mobile service centre to travel around to different parts of the country.

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

You're doing exactly what the Gates Foundation is doing in Africa, and thank you, because that does help people.

However, Canada Post has a vast network. Its distribution network is great, and it has real estate as well, and nobody is dismantling it. Do you think there is any synergy for a public-private partnership with Canada Post? How can we make it a win-win?

[Keith Nixon]

I do think there is opportunity to explore partnerships and synergies in that way.

I'll reference two things. One is that when we recreated our credit union legislation in Saskatchewan back in the early 2000s, there was actually a provision built in that enabled credit unions to consider postal services in-branch for exactly such a partnership as that in small communities.

The second thing is that I referred to Farm Credit Canada as being one example of a competitive rub with credit unions for a crown financial institution providing private sector financial services to agriculture. We can show data and trends to illustrate that their expansion of powers really created a competitive friction between the two organizations.

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

I have some questions for other witnesses as well, but briefly, if it were regulated to ensure that there is a level playing ground just as the BDC is regulated, would you be willing to face opportunities to explore?

[Keith Nixon]

Yes. In fact, in the last three or four years we've had a stronger partnership with Farm Credit Canada. We're working together to figure out how we can complement each other in the market, rather than having these competitive spaces based on unfair competitive advantage.

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

Thank you.

Ms. Schick, you represent the seniors group. How many of them live either independently in their houses or in apartment units? Do you know?

[Holly Schick]

I really would have no idea.

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

Okay. I just wondered about what Mr. Whalen asked. To those of us in urban areas, “door to door” means delivery to our home or delivery to the apartment mailboxes in the basement or delivery to some apartments where there are actually individual mail slots or delivery at the end of the driveway. Is that your understanding of what door-to-door delivery would be?

[Holly Schick]

Yes.

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

You would go with that?

[Holly Schick]

Yes, absolutely.