Government Operations Committee on Oct. 21st, 2016

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Thank you to the witnesses for being here to make your presentations today.

It's not obvious to everyone, but it's certainly a clear comment. When you start, the boxes don't magically fill themselves, so you have to distribute that and it takes time.

I want to touch base. Right now, it's open three hours, five days a week. There have been some discussions in other areas about having mail delivered every other day, where it's being delivered.

I'm assuming that you do need it open at least the three hours every day because, as was just pointed out to us earlier by Ashleigh, there is some use of it every day from the businesses here and the individuals.

As a solution, would you be amenable to keeping it open longer for three days a week, instead of shorter five days a week or is there any combination of hours, which is what I'm looking at, that would be tenable, still keeping the same hours? You can't keep 15 hours in a week and really have much more than two days out of it, but I don't think it's that so much as the fact that, it has to be open at least that minimum, whereas if you moved it, it's open all the time.

[Angela Petrash]

There are two things to consider. The new location gives everybody access to retrieve their mail seven days a week. Great. The other aspect is the service component that Olive provides: could she be providing more, if she were there longer?

It's two different things. One part is access for everybody, longer, better—we know that. The other part of it is that the service end that Olive provides right now is only accessible three hours a day, because that's when she's open. The new location definitely provides better access for everybody to retrieve their mail seven days a week.

It's still the other component. If somebody walks in at 2 o'clock on Wednesday afternoon, they don't have access to the other services with her there now. They just have access to retrieve their mail.

What I was getting at is that we're putting in place a really great location for Canada Post. Is there an opportunity there for Canada Post to have more sales of a service?

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Obviously the proposal that you'd like to see is to move it to the grocery store, where there are other services, where it's open seven days—not for 24 hours, but certainly seven days. And you're very right: this is a very busy part of the country in the summertime, and even in winter you have tourism here, with the casino across the road and Brokenhead. Tourism doesn't just end when the lake freezes over, or the shores do. There is cross-country skiing and everything else that goes on in this part of the country; therefore it's not just locals who could use it. That's what I was looking at.

I want to assure you that, coming from a small town, I do know what an ice shack size is. The post office was described earlier as being pretty much capable of being put in the centre of these tables here, as far as the space goes.

[Angela Petrash]

Three of us would have a hard time to stand in there and grab our mail, if all three of us were in there right now.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

I liked Chief Bear's comment. He indicated it was so small you'd have to go outside to change your mind.

[Angela Petrash]

Yes. That's very good.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

I thought that pretty much describes it.

I don't think there's any doubt that it would be better for everyone if there could be some arrangement made. Other than that, I believe I heard correctly from the others, you'd have to go half a mile south to get any other mail service.

Where would the other nearest mail service be, if this were closed?

[Angela Petrash]

It's about five minutes away, about seven miles.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

It's seven miles? Okay.

Then, it is more than just the local people on the reserve who use the boxes here as well. There are also a few other citizens.

[A voice]

That's correct.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Okay, good.

Have you any other advice that you could provide, as far as the types of services you might want to see are concerned? Obviously you can't fit them into the building that's here to do that kind of work in the shack, as you describe it. The type of facility that you're looking at going into is a grocery store. There is a pharmacy there as well. Is there anything else that you think could be used to utilize that facility better than just adding a post office?

[Angela Petrash]

The Post Office we're in right now definitely needs to be upgraded, because Olive is working in an L-shaped building all day. She is walking back and forth in an L-shaped building that's maybe about the size of these two tables put together. She has no room for parcels, depending on the sizes of the boxes that come in. There were times I had to go to get mail for the band office and I had to pick up boxes and parcels. She has no wiggle room whatsoever. It definitely needs to be upgraded. It needs to be moved. She needs to be moved out of there into a bigger place.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

I guess my question was more, assuming it is moved to the other facility, is there anything else to complement that store? What is there in that facility that's being offered now, other than groceries and a pharmacy?

[Angela Petrash]

There's the pharmacy, mail.... I was here for the end of the last panel, and there was some discussion about banking services. When I walk into the post office in Selkirk I know I can do MoneyGrams, money orders.... They are digital. Olive is on a manual system right now.

Our hope is that once she gets into the grocery store there is Wi-Fi Internet access to which we can upgrade her so that she can do some of those things: MoneyGrams, envelopes, packaging, all that kind of stuff. I can go there to get a passport application; that's where I go to do those types of things. It would be nice to have those services here as well.

I think Canada Post is missing the boat on some of those sale items. They don't offer them here, so they're not going to get the revenue for them.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you.

Mr. Blaikie, go ahead.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Thank you very much for being here.

Ms. Petrash, because of your role with the Development Corporation, you are working with a lot of the businesses here. If you could access the post office counter more throughout the day, do you think there are services the businesses here could use that they are missing out on, either because of the timing issue or because certain services just aren't offered?

[Angela Petrash]

Yes, there is definitely that aspect of it. Keep in mind that all the businesses are open seven days a week, so the store managers don't work Monday to Friday, 9 to 5. They all work different shifts, and they are all off during the day, so if there is something they have to get done at Canada Post, they are basically trying to schedule their shift based on what's available, to do whatever they need to do at the post office. There is that to consider as well.

I like the idea that Mr. Whalen brought up to Chief Bear about having a banking service. All our businesses need change. If we had a safe drop-box for our deposits and those types of things, would that be a benefit to the business side of the community? Absolutely.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

What is the ideal relationship with Canada Post? How do you think Canada Post could be better at engaging the community to find out what its needs are and how to be more responsive?

[Angela Petrash]

From my experience, just trying to make this transition over to the grocery store.... Olive is a postmaster. She is not your typical Canada Post employee. She is under a different union agreement, and there are different rules for her. I've had some discussion with the gentleman who would look after this. His name is Bernie. I was a little disappointed that he wants to take a hands-off approach dealing with this situation, basically, “Your deal is with the postmaster, and you look after it with her.” I was a little disappointed to hear that, versus “How do I help you and Olive make this work?”

Personally, I thought, “She's working for you. You're Canada Post. Why is this not an open dialogue?“ It was more of a hands-off approach—“You deal with your postmaster”—which I still have a hard time understanding.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

If there was a reimagining of Canada Post and it went the way of being not just about the mail but about other services—whether it's postal banking or being a place where people can come not just to get their passport application but to actually get their passport or a hunting and fishing licence, which I think was one of the suggestions earlier—do you think that this kind of more overall service approach might be part of an organizational change for Canada Post that allows you to have that conversation with Canada Post people, who would come in and say, “What are the needs of the community? What are the kinds of things that our existing infrastructure as the post office can help you with, and how do we do it?”

Do you think it's just weird to have that as a role for the post office, or do you think that it would be a real asset?

[Angela Petrash]

Absolutely, I think this would be an asset, so a community member doesn't have to hop in a vehicle or find a ride to Selkirk or to Winnipeg to get that service or to pick up that licence—not that our community members need the licence, but if somebody else does.

I know the hunters and the fishermen actually use the hotel across the street quite often. That's where they stay. If the hotel could say, “You can get your fishing licence or your hunting licence across at the grocery store”—versus now telling them, “You have to go to Selkirk to get that. That's the only place they offer it”—how awesome would that be?

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

Do you think people in the area are open to the idea of the post office doing that? If all that stands in the way of the post office becoming that is the attitude that it's a post office and it should just deal with the mail and that's it, do you think people would really welcome the idea of thinking about the post office and seeing the post office do more than the traditional mail service?

[Jackie Pommer]

I believe it would definitely help.

[Angela Petrash]

I believe it would, too, because we have people in our community who have to hire people to take them to Selkirk or to Winnipeg. If they want to send money to their families anywhere in the country, they can't. They have to buy a money order.

I know that people use e-transfer, but a lot of people don't have that on their phones or on the computer. A lot of people are old school, and they like to live traditionally.

I think it would be a great asset to the community.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

One of our witnesses earlier today in Winnipeg said that, in his opinion, changes to the post office along these lines could actually be a way of helping people who are living in poverty because there are a lot of costs. He spoke specifically about payday loans, but what I'm hearing is that there are other costs associated without having those services in the community. Would it be right to say that, for people who are living paycheque to paycheque right now, it would make a real material, financial difference for them if those services were being offered closer to home?