Government Operations Committee on May 31st, 2022

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you very much.

With that, I want to thank you for the great questions being asked, and the answers.

I'm going to take advantage of being in the position of chair, because I have a question for you. It's just a simple one.

I'm from Saskatchewan. We're seeing a lot of mailboxes being changed out. All of a sudden, we're getting new mailboxes. First, were these changes locally contracted out? Second, regarding the new mailboxes—because of the old ones, there was a lot of concrete being busted up—are they being designed so that, should you ever come up with the chance to change your plan, you don't have to keep redoing the cement work? Third, are those old boxes being recycled? Lastly, how much is it costing?

[Rindala El-Hage]

Those are great questions. I love the enthusiasm, and the support you're showing for your community. We are constantly looking to replenish our street furniture. We go through vigorous RFP processes as part of that to ensure we have the most efficient street furniture out there to replenish our community mailboxes.

I don't have more specific information. I will ask my colleague, Madame Séguin, if she has anything more to add on that. If not, I am happy to get back to you.

Nathalie.

[Nathalie Séguin]

Thank you, Rindala.

To your point, as finance, we are not necessarily engaged in the design of our community mailboxes. Again, from a local purchasing standpoint, it's really all about what makes sense regarding all the parts of our sourcing processes, and how best to support those changes from an asset-based standpoint.

We need to reinvest in our extensive asset base every year. Yes, we do need to transform to better support growth and the experiences we have with our customers, but we also need to maintain the large asset base we have with our buildings, plants, community mailboxes and vehicles. Those all also require investments. There are teams that are working all the time to ensure that it's done in the best and most appropriate way.

Again, though, as finance, we're not in the details of those processes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you very much for the answer. I knew I was touching on a very different area, but I appreciate your response.

With that said, we have come to the end. Mrs. Séguin and Mrs. El-Hage, thank you very much for being our witnesses today.

We have now come to the end of the public portion of our meeting. We will now proceed to an in camera portion of the meeting.

I'm going to suspend the meeting, and when I do so, the technical staff will end this part of the meeting on Zoom. For members, that means you cannot remain on the present Zoom call that you're on. You were given a pass code and a link to Zoom. With that, you can exit, and then please come back in as quickly as you can, so we can resume the in camera meeting.

At this point, I suspend the meeting.

[Proceedings continue in camera]