Evidence of meeting #48 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was service.
9 a.m.
Liberal
Yasmin Ratansi Liberal Don Valley East, ON
Thank you.
For you—I'm sorry; I can't see your name and I have to wear glasses, for some strange reason—when you look at international posting that you're doing to the U.K., the U.S.A., and...did you say Australia?
October 21st, 2016 / 9 a.m.
Liberal
Yasmin Ratansi Liberal Don Valley East, ON
Those are already covered by treaties. We visited a plant in Vancouver, where we saw how Canada Post treats parcels, how efficient it is, how professional they are. It is a fantastic set-up. I'm so glad the supervisor was able to tell you that, but the Universal Postal Union treaty protects you throughout, really, so there should be tracking. I was surprised they didn't have it.
Did you know that China is your biggest competitor and that China is regarded as a third world country within the postal system, so its parcels cost 85¢, whereas yours might cost $6? Perhaps there's a chance that Canada Post needs to renegotiate with those guys and bring them back to being not a third world country but a first world country so that you might get some better advantages.
In terms of the remote areas that you serve, you talked about how FedEx, UPS, and Purolator don't go to the most remote areas.
9 a.m.
Liberal
Yasmin Ratansi Liberal Don Valley East, ON
It's Canada Post because they have that last-mile application. Do you find that your customers are satisfied that they get that delivery, that Canada Post provides that very useful service?
9 a.m.
Chief Operating Officer, Manitobah Mukluks
Yes. As I said, our customers give us feedback 20 to 30 times a day. We serve all over Canada. They're ecstatic when they receive their packages within two days, even sometimes in three days to the Nunavut or Yellowknife areas.
9 a.m.
Liberal
9 a.m.
Liberal
Yasmin Ratansi Liberal Don Valley East, ON
Okay.
You talked about franchised operators not serving you well because they don't know how to do a MoneyGram, etc. We've been listening, and did you know that 40% of Canada Post's offices are now franchised? We've been listening to a lot of people and seniors complaining that in those offices the postal thing is not the first priority. They have to stock their shelves.
Would you like to see more franchised stores, which somebody may claim is stealth privatization—franchisees don't pay a fee—or more corporate stores?
9:05 a.m.
Owner, McQueen and Mo Mater
I'm afraid I don't know. I don't have a good basis of comparison for the service I would receive from a franchised store versus a corporation store. I just use the one that's closest to me, and that's the franchised one.
9:05 a.m.
Liberal
Yasmin Ratansi Liberal Don Valley East, ON
You were about to poke your eyes out if somebody asked for a MoneyGram.
9:05 a.m.
Owner, McQueen and Mo Mater
A MoneyGram, or heaven forbid they need to change their address.
9:05 a.m.
Liberal
Yasmin Ratansi Liberal Don Valley East, ON
Okay.
Here is the issue. In terms of the corporation itself, if it has corporate stores, the people are very well trained. They're there for a long time. They know customer service. There's the example you gave about the supervisor.
We're not talking about franchised stores being turned into postal banking. In remote communities it's access to cash, the economic divide. The suggestion that has come before us is that those very remote communities with corporate offices, about 1,200 corporate offices, can be turned into rural hubs that you talked about, or can be used for a very unrefined banking type of thing, because people need access to cash. Those are the suggestions that have been made. What do you think about those suggestions if corporate stores, where people are knowledgeable, do those things?
9:05 a.m.
Owner, McQueen and Mo Mater
That would make a great deal of sense to me. It really would, because I think it was in the mid-nineties that a lot of the big chain banks in Canada started to shut down a lot of their smaller branches.
I'm speaking again from the experience within Beausejour. There used to be two banks and a credit union and now there is one bank and a credit union, so anything that could be offered to supplement and make more purposeful the corporate offices in rural and northern communities would be welcome, in my mind.
9:05 a.m.
Liberal
Yasmin Ratansi Liberal Don Valley East, ON
Mr. Leong, do your clients need access to cash? How do they pay? If they pay by credit card, is there a broadband problem?
9:05 a.m.
Chief Operating Officer, Manitobah Mukluks
For us it's different, because before we can ship our web orders, e-commerce orders, they have to pay cash first, or pay by credit card.
9:05 a.m.
Liberal
Yasmin Ratansi Liberal Don Valley East, ON
Do your remote areas have enough broadband access to allow your customers to get online and pay by credit card?
9:05 a.m.
Liberal
Yasmin Ratansi Liberal Don Valley East, ON
Okay, fine. That was one of the issues that we were facing as well, that you can get postal banking but you need broadband access.
I do not not know how remote you have been, but do you think that the rural post offices.... We talked about removing the rural moratorium because rural becomes urban and suburban. Do you think the rural post office can act as a Service Canada type of hub? Have you had any experience? Do people access EI forms or social security forms or fishing licences?
9:05 a.m.
Conservative
9:05 a.m.
Liberal
9:05 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
Thank you very much.
We'll now go to our last two intervenors. They will have five minutes each. We will start with Mr. Maguire.
Welcome to our committee.
9:05 a.m.
Conservative
Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to our presenters for your presentations this morning.
I'm very interested in your discussions in regard to some of the remote and rural areas. Having driven six miles, 10 kilometres, to get my mail all my life, from a rural perspective, I'm interested in your comments about alternate-day delivery.
How would that impact your delivery of parcels? Would it impact or change your business purchases or those of the people who are purchasing your products?
Alternate days is one thing. I'll give you an example. As a politician, for 26 weeks of the year I'm in Ottawa. I leave on Sunday night. I get home on Friday night, usually, so I pick up my mail again on Saturday morning in my box in the area where I am. I get it once a week, basically. That's not everybody and you wouldn't want that, probably, for everyone, but what do you see as acceptable mechanisms, acceptable time frames, for delivery and pickup?
9:05 a.m.
Chief Operating Officer, Manitobah Mukluks
We're actually targeting same-day delivery, within 24 hours. A lot of our customers are, let's say, between 20 and 45, and a lot of these young folks want instant gratification. They want to see their products right away.