Evidence of meeting #5 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was communities.
A recording is available from Parliament.
2:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Robert Gordon Kitchen
Thank you, Mr. McCauley.
We'll now go to Mr. Housefather for five minutes.
2:30 p.m.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Fortin, for having been here with us today.
I know your job is a very challenging one, and I want to thank you and all of the Canada Post employees across the country who do such a great job to bring postal services to all Canadians.
2:30 p.m.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
You're welcome.
I have a couple of questions.
My colleague Mr. Johns asked earlier about the options of banking at Canada Post, and you briefly brought up the MyMoney pilot project that's being done.
Could you talk to us more about the MyMoney project and how it would work? How would it compare to loans from banks, for example?
2:30 p.m.
Interim Chief Operating Officer, Canada Post Corporation
First of all, thank you so much for the feedback on our employees. They are very hard-working, the 55,000 of them, and I'm glad they receive some recognition. It's been a tough two years out front.
It is a test that we're doing in partnership with TD. We have it across several sites in Canada and, really, the difference, I suppose.... I'm not an expert, and we could provide you with all of the details separately. We're not a bank. What we are is an access point for customers who visit that post office in the community to see the offer of service and to be directed to TD to go to access the service.
That's our role. It's really making use of that great network that we have in what might be an underserved community for financial services and putting information out there that they can access. Through that, they contact TD and a transaction occurs or not.
2:30 p.m.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
We all know that the union representing the Canada Post workers has been recommending that seniors services be provided, or other types of services, particularly at rural locations.
2:30 p.m.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
Could you talk to me a bit about how Canada Post has thought about what types of services it might be able to offer to enhance its service offerings and also to help Canada Post become more profitable, especially in rural areas?
2:30 p.m.
Interim Chief Operating Officer, Canada Post Corporation
First of all, rural Canada is incredibly important to us. It's part of our mandate and we want to offer the best service possible, and we're very proud of that network, because it's a unique advantage to us.
In terms of the services, the first priority is to ensure we can have a high-quality service on our basic products. That is why I keep talking about capacity investments, because the smallest of post offices can have capacity challenges as much as the biggest offices. That's priority one.
Priority two is some of the work that we're doing around our community hubs. We have set out to say to communities, “You tell us and you work with us, along with the unions, to identify the services that you feel might be of use to your small business customers and to your community.” Then we try to tailor that in those tests to see how it will work.
We're at the beginning stages of that program. Like I said, we're going to be doing two more—with locations to be determined—but that is how we will learn what works, what doesn't and what services might help us better serve those communities.
2:35 p.m.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
Excellent, and I assume that when you're doing that you're also consulting with and working with the union in discussions about launching the pilot projects.
2:35 p.m.
Interim Chief Operating Officer, Canada Post Corporation
The local, national, and regional unions have been very heavily involved. They have been side by side with us on this.
2:35 p.m.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
That's fantastic.
As an M.P. from a minority language community, I naturally feel a strong attachment to bilingualism. I know that's also true of you at Canada Post, at both the provincial and national levels.
Could you tell us about the current challenges for Canada Post at the moment in terms of the bilingual services available everywhere in Canada? Are there any specific challenges?
2:35 p.m.
Interim Chief Operating Officer, Canada Post Corporation
First of all, we want to keep our retail sales network. Wherever bilingualism is essential, we do everything possible to offer bilingual services to customers. When there are problems, we try to deal with them. That's part of the quality services we offer to all Canadians. It's one of our priorities.
2:35 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Robert Gordon Kitchen
Thank you, Mr. Housefather. Things are going along very well.
We are now going to go to the fourth round.
We will start with Mr. Lobb, for five minutes.
2:35 p.m.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
Thanks very much, Mr. Chair.
I want to go back to a couple of topics. I do appreciate the amazing work that must have been required over the last couple of years to keep things going. It would definitely be unprecedented. I think everyone on the committee appreciates that.
Obviously, you're the interim chief operating officer, so you're involved in all of the important discussions. I want to go back to the underfunded pension liability. There's a three-year average underfunded pension liability of, I believe, $7.1 billion, and in 2020 it was $6.3 billion.
For a number of years now, you've asked, and I wouldn't say you specifically, but Canada Post has asked for a special payment holiday. Are there any concerns in the corporation on where that number is heading based on the fact that it is quite a significant number?
2:35 p.m.
Interim Chief Operating Officer, Canada Post Corporation
We're always worried about financial sustainability. As I said, it's part of our dual mandates. Specific to the pensions though, I don't have the specifics, but I'd be happy to have someone follow-up with the committee.
2:35 p.m.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
Fair enough.
Another comment you made was about the MoneyGram product. Do you have an estimate of how much that MoneyGram product costs to set up and deliver?
2:35 p.m.
Interim Chief Operating Officer, Canada Post Corporation
I don't. It's actually been installed in our network of post offices for quite some time, and I haven't seen specific numbers recently. Again, we will certainly be happy to provide you with that information.
2:35 p.m.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
Do you know, when you're looking at quarterly reports, monthly reports and annual reports, if there is a separate line item for IT expenses that would go into supporting and maintaining, let's say, this MoneyGram program?
2:35 p.m.
Interim Chief Operating Officer, Canada Post Corporation
I don't know if that's in the annual report. I do know, from the initial implementation, that the MoneyGram service was set up as a third party service—totally self-sustainable.
2:35 p.m.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
Do you know how much revenue MoneyGram generates in a year for Canada Post?
2:35 p.m.
Interim Chief Operating Officer, Canada Post Corporation
I don't have the specifics about that either, but I'll be happy to provide them.
2:35 p.m.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
Fair enough. I know that it is kind of a granular idea and granular topic.
There's also the core business you're involved in. On the parcel business, did you mention what its margins are?
2:35 p.m.
Interim Chief Operating Officer, Canada Post Corporation
No, we said we could provide you that separately.
2:35 p.m.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
Among C-level staff, executives, and board of directors, is there a discussion that takes place often, or ever, about the different business units that you have under the umbrella of Canada Post—for example, their margins and performance? Do those discussions take place often?