Thank you.
I'm Kevin Rebeck, and on behalf of the Manitoba Federation of Labour, Manitoba's central labour body representing over 100,000 unionized workers here in Manitoba, I'm pleased to offer the following remarks to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates in relation to the study on Canada Post.
Protecting the future of our public postal service is vitally important to the way of life of everyday Canadians, for the maintenance of good jobs in our communities, and for a prosperous economy. We urge your committee to listen to public stakeholder feedback, to assess opportunities and challenges, and to make your recommendations with the clear goal of sustaining and expanding our valued national postal service.
Canada Post has generated profit in 19 of the last 21 years. The Harper government's approach of raising fees and cutting services has not served Canadians well, especially the disastrous effort to eliminate home delivery, which has been particularly challenging for seniors and Canadians with mobility challenges. There are many opportunities for Canada Post to innovate, diversify, and grow. We submit it's imperative that home delivery be restored to those who have lost it. It's imperative for fairness, for reliability, for convenience, and for safety. Quite simply, it's the right thing to do, the Canadian thing to do.
Moreover, it's critical that full daily service be maintained for all Canadians. Many families and businesses rely on daily delivery of time-sensitive materials coupled with Canada Post's top-of-the-line service guarantees to carry on their activities and support growing businesses. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has advanced a series of innovative ideas to green our post offices, and we urge you to consider them. As our national post office is the largest retail chain and logistics company in the country, greening efforts could have huge impacts on climate change and the environment more broadly.
Finally, we're pleased to add our voice to the many calling for the establishment of postal banking, a unique opportunity for Canada to take advantage of the pre-existing nationwide Canada Post infrastructure that's present in so many communities across the country and to enhance the provision of needed financial services, which are currently lacking for far too many Canadians.
We recognize that Canadians are generally sending fewer letters through the mail, but rather than continuing with the tried and failed approach of hiking prices and slashing services that Canadians depend on, we believe Canada Post should work to take advantage of its nationwide presence, including its giant retail network, to expand its services to generate alternative sources of revenue.
Bank branches have been closed in many communities across the country, including many inner-city neighbourhoods in rural and northern communities. Despite Canada's population increasing, the number of bank branches has been declining for more than two decades. A study by Canada Post expert John Anderson has estimated that in some 45% of the 3,326 communities in small-town and rural Canada that have a post office, there is no bank or credit union branch. Bank and credit union branches are especially sparse in first nations communities, but many have existing post office branches. In communities that are chronically underserved by banks, there's a great opportunity and need to establish postal banking to offer affordable and reliable alternative products to predatory, high-cost payday loans.
Establishing a nationwide system of postal banking would make use of the labour and hard infrastructure of more than 6,000 outlets across the country and help fill the need for reliable and affordable financial services.
Postal banking has a proven track record of profitability and good service in countries all over the world from Switzerland to India to Brazil.
Profits from such services as savings and chequing accounts, ATMs, lines of credit, mortgages, and money transfers could all be reinvested in our communities.
Relatedly, there may be opportunities to expand document services beyond passport applications to include identity cards, which when lacking provide additional hurdles to accessing needed financial services.
Thanks for considering our input.