Members of the government operations and estimates committee, I thank you for the opportunity for allowing me to speak today.
My name is Carlos Sosa. I am the former co-chair and current provincial council member of the Manitoba League of Persons with Disabilities. MLPD welcomes the opportunity to speak to this critical public policy issue, which has an impact on persons with disabilities.
The Manitoba League of Persons with Disabilities is the province's cross-disability advocacy voice and has existed since 1974. We are also a member group of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities, for which I serve as the second vice-chair.
In December of 2013, when the original decision was announced to eliminate door-to-door mail delivery and to introduce community mailboxes, the MLPD had very serious concerns over accessibility due to adverse weather conditions in the winter months for persons with disabilities and seniors. We also had concerns over issues of independence, vulnerability, and the potential privatization of the postal service.
One of the suggestions coming out of the 2013 decision was that people affected by this change could simply use the Internet for their daily needs. Unfortunately, this is not the case for persons with disabilities, as a significant proportion of our community lives in poverty and is unable to afford to buy a computer or even to afford access to the Internet.
Persons living in poverty, which includes persons with disabilities, often rely on public services for their day-to-day survival, including access to the postal service. Persons with disabilities rely on the postal service to receive their bills, personal letters, medical information, and monthly benefit cheques. The letter carrier serves as the unofficial eyes and ears to the outside world for some members of our community who lack connection to the supports in the broader community.
A trek to the community mailbox has a lot of barriers, especially for those with physical disabilities. One of the barriers is snow clearing, especially during the cold winter months here in Winnipeg. In winter, snow clearing can be inadequate, and in some cases those who use wheelchairs have to use the street to get around.
When I brought this issue up in front of Susan Margles, I asked her specifically to clarify Canada Post's policy in terms of the inches and centimetres that the corporation is responsible to clear when snow collects around the mailbox. Her response to me was that Canada Post is simply responsible for clearing snow around the box. This is simply not clear enough. In my interpretation, that could mean a very small path would be adequate, when wheelchairs take a lot more room than a very small path to get to the box.
One of the ways in which Canada Post could bring in new revenues is by the introduction of postal banking. Postal banking could provide critical services to underserved and marginalized communities, and the area in which I live could be one of them. I have seen the effects of bank closures in my area, so we would definitely benefit from postal banking there.
Another service Canada Post could provide is transporting food to northern and rural communities at a reasonable price in comparison to the Northern stores, which sell food at outrageous prices in many northern communities. In many northern and rural communities, persons with disabilities are unable to afford the expensive trip to go to an urban centre to buy groceries, so this would be a very welcome move.
A move toward privatization would have a detrimental impact on persons with disabilities, especially since a significant portion of our community lives disproportionately in poverty and relies on accessible good-quality public services for their day-to-day survival.
I'm done.