Evidence of meeting #19 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was employees.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
So it's going to be between Canada Post and Purolator storage facilities. Is that correct?
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Okay. The role that Canada Post is playing is mainly around storage and the last-mile delivery.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
The role of Purolator is also the same—transportation as well as the last-mile delivery.
Vice-President, Operations Integration, Canada Post Corporation
Exactly.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
I understand that you brought Amazon in, and that's where I want to go.
Amazon is more like a logistics-provider system in the background that manages the distribution and says where the product should go.
Vice-President, Operations Integration, Canada Post Corporation
We did not bring in Amazon. PHAC made that decision. It's a system, software, that PHAC uses in order to place their order and to track where their order is—
Liberal
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Which system, which body among all of these, prioritizes where the products are going to go?
Vice-President, Operations Integration, Canada Post Corporation
That's PHAC.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
PHAC prioritizes where the products go and then the execution in there.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
How has the volume changed? How has the working relationship between the three worked in the past?
I have only 30 seconds.
Vice-President, Operations Integration, Canada Post Corporation
The working relationship has been excellent. We have also been supported by the military on the ground. From the start, this was put together very quickly and we have worked collaboratively to deal with issues. So I would say that the working relationships have been terrific, actually.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
Thank you very much.
We'll now go to Madam Vignola.
You have five minutes.
Bloc
Julie Vignola Bloc Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Good morning.
My first question is for you, Ms. Fortin. You say you got 10,000 temporary employees back. I thank you for that, because one of my concerns was whether, during the crisis, these employees had been fired. You say you called them back and now you have 60,000 employees. I'm glad to hear they're protected too.
The volume of parcels you handle is greater, but is the type of parcels different than usual?
Vice-President, Operations Integration, Canada Post Corporation
That's a very good question, because there has indeed been a change in the kind of packages we handle.
Under normal circumstances, we process and deliver 700,000 to 800,000 items per day. We currently process and deliver between 1.5 million and 2 million items per day.
Usually 60% of the items are small packages, for example, a sweater ordered from Simons. The remaining 40% are larger packages, such as an Apple computer, that don't fit in a mailman's bag. However, we have seen big changes in the type of packages.
This is because right now, since people only have the option to order online, they order more items from the same supplier. So we've seen the size of the packages increase. There are fewer small ones, more big ones, and many more oversized packages, like canoes. We are not equipped for that. Our operations are designed to handle a lot of small parcels, 40% regular parcels, and perhaps 1% oversized parcels.
Bloc
Julie Vignola Bloc Beauport—Limoilou, QC
I understand that packages are scanned for things that are not allowed into Canada. Do oversized packages complicate this analysis and lengthen the delays?
Vice-President, Operations Integration, Canada Post Corporation
The majority of oversized packages arrive from Canada, from Ottawa, in fact, where one of our major customers is located. The contents of these packages are not analyzed. On the other hand, the size of the items is analyzed to determine whether our employees are able to handle the packages safely.
In terms of what happens internationally, as you know, we have three processing offices where we have customs teams that check every item that comes into the country.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
Madam Fortin, I'm sorry to interrupt. Our interpreters are asking if you could hold the wire rather than the microphone itself.
Bloc
Julie Vignola Bloc Beauport—Limoilou, QC
A few years ago, Canada Post had to close some of its processing centres, particularly the one in Quebec City. As a result, for more remote regions, such as the Nord-du-Québec, Côte-Nord or Îles-de-la-Madeleine, parcels now have to transit through remote locations, such as Montréal, before being sent to their destination.
In a situation like the one we're in now, would having treatment centres closer together have significantly improved the speed of treatment?