I want to make the committee aware of something that is referred to by Canada Post as network changes.
Specifically in western Canada, there are six major processing centres. In addition, of course, we have many smaller communities and mid-sized communities. Through the network changes that Canada Post has imposed since approximately 2008, we've seen a deterioration of service in the smaller centres because the practice has been, under the network changes, to ship mail to larger centres, even mail that is destined for that smaller centre.
For example, I know the committee was in Moose Jaw. In Moose Jaw, formerly if you mailed a letter or other items to people within the area of Moose Jaw, it would be sorted in Moose Jaw and most times it would be delivered the next day. Now Canada Post will ship it to Regina. Canada Post has taken that one step further, and now we seen them ship mail over weekends to be processed in places like Winnipeg, for example. Through the network changes, we end up with mail moving across. It makes it more machinable and saves a small amount of money, but it causes a considerable deterioration of service, especially for people and businesses in those mid-sized centres.