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.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
Okay. The last question, because I'll probably run out of time here, is in regard to the margins. The operating margins are pretty small. Compared to FedEx, which is maybe not a fair comparison, they're substantially lower.
We talked about some of the areas of growth. What margins are growing? You mentioned parcel delivery. What are the operating margins on parcel delivery?
Interim Chief Operating Officer, Canada Post Corporation
I think I might turn that over to my colleague, Mr. Pitre.
Vice-President, Business Development, Canada Post Corporation
Again, you're talking about margins and where we can grow the business. Basically, as Manon was saying, what we're trying to do with the investment is to be able to be more efficient, reduce our costs and provide a better service to Canadians. There, we will be more competitive and acquire that volume in the marketplace.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
Okay. You're going to make an investment. I understand that. You're going to improve efficiencies. Do you have a projection on where your operating margins might lie after you've done that investment?
Vice-President, Business Development, Canada Post Corporation
I don't have that number in front of me now, but we could report it to the committee.
Conservative
Ben Lobb Conservative Huron—Bruce, ON
Okay. The only thing I would say, and I'm not trying to be difficult here, is that I think it's important for the committee—
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Robert Gordon Kitchen
Thank you very much, Mr. Lobb.
I thank the witnesses. If you would submit to the clerk the written answers to those questions you were provided, that would be greatly appreciated. We will disseminate them to the membership.
Thank you.
We'll now go to Mr. Kusmierczyk for five minutes.
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
In Canada, we obviously have a very diverse community. We have many relations and networks abroad. I know that Canada Post provides remittance services to Canadians, and I'm sure also to many of the temporary foreign workers who come here as well. We have about 10,000 temporary foreign workers who come to our region every single year.
I just wanted to ask, who is using the remittance services provided by Canada Post and what advantages does Canada Post have over regular banks that are out there providing those types of services?
Interim Chief Operating Officer, Canada Post Corporation
I'm going to assume you're talking about the MoneyGram type of remittance services?
Interim Chief Operating Officer, Canada Post Corporation
The advantage we have is definitely the size of our network, how far-reaching we are and how accessible we are to those who would want to use the services.
I would also say that our brand is one of the most trusted brands in Canada, so a service like MoneyGram would find that appealing and would find comfort in entrusting their business to what is a trusted brand.
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
I know that in this business, obviously innovation—always going to where the puck is going to be, following customer demands—is so critical. We know that obviously deliveries of parcels have gone up exponentially. Where people live in multi-unit residential dwellings, condos for example, sometimes you see boxes and boxes stacked in the lobby.
I know Canada Post is looking at potentially introducing automated parcel locker pilots across the country. Can you just tell us a bit about that, how they work and how they might improve efficiency?
Interim Chief Operating Officer, Canada Post Corporation
We are constantly looking at ways to innovate and to improve service to all Canadians, whether they're in urban, rural or northern communities. We have tested automated lockers and the tests have been completed.
We have also tested and are implementing non-automated parcel lockers, which work quite well in many condominium and apartment buildings, in our big cities and in our smaller cities, wherever we can, because of the parcel growth and because of what you described as boxes in the lobby. That's not necessarily the high level of service that we want to provide. We have installed thousands of parcel lockers across the country to deal with that.
We are also looking at where else we can install parcel lockers so that Canadians can have their parcels as close as possible to where they live or work, if they go back to work.
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
That's perfect. Thank you.
On innovation and making sure you're providing different services and a wide array of services, I have a question about the use of drones in delivery service as well.
According to Canada Post's 2020 annual report, right now there are plans to test drones and robotics to deliver mail and parcels and whatnot.
What are the advantages and disadvantages, as you see them, of drone delivery?
Interim Chief Operating Officer, Canada Post Corporation
As I said, we're always looking for ways to innovate and improve our service. In remote communities or difficult-to-access communities, because of weather or for whatever reasons, we have worked with various companies to see if drones could be a solution.
We tested drones in B.C. with one of the pharmaceutical companies, and we learned a lot from that test about how drones function, what infrastructure you need, the people you need and the expertise you need. We will continue to look for opportunities to use drones to see what application they might have within our delivery network.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Robert Gordon Kitchen
Thank you very much.
Using a chair's discretion, I will say that maybe you can try those drones in southeast Saskatchewan to see how they work there as well. I'd appreciate that.
We now go into our third round.
Mr. Paul-Hus, you have five minutes.
Conservative
Pierre Paul-Hus Conservative Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My question will perhaps not be an easy one to hear. However, the work of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates consists mainly of asking detailed questions.
I'd like to hear your point of view on the Canada Post services survey we've heard so much about, which was requested by the government without informing the organization about it.
Is this indicative of the government's loss of confidence in your organization?
Interim Chief Operating Officer, Canada Post Corporation
As I told you, we did not take part in the survey, but I knew about it.
We are focusing on our primary mandate. During the pandemic, and in particular during the current wave—the worst wave so far—we really concentrated on our mandate to serve Canadians.
Conservative
Pierre Paul-Hus Conservative Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
I hear you, Ms. Fortin, but how would you explain the fact that the government commissioned a survey without mentioning it to you?
It decided to do a survey and ask Canadians questions about what they expected in terms of services from Canada Post, without even discussing with you what is happening and what might be done.
Why is that?
Interim Chief Operating Officer, Canada Post Corporation
Unfortunately, I can't answer that question on behalf of the federal government. I can only speak for myself and for our corporation. As I told you, I'm in charge of day-to-day operations. That's my job.
Conservative
Pierre Paul-Hus Conservative Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
Okay.
I'm not sure whether you'll have an answer to my next question.
During the last federal election, 1.2 million special ballots were sent out to Canadians. Of these, 90,274 arrived late. Wasn't there a special request to speed up the delivery process in view of the critical importance of a general election? Were there any instructions of this kind?
If so, what happened?
If not, what happened?
The bottom line is that I would like to know what happened.
Interim Chief Operating Officer, Canada Post Corporation
There was in fact a big order with respect to the work to be done during the 44th general election.
We worked very closely with Elections Canada to provide them with support. We took the same approach we always take in Canadian elections. We made sure every day to deliver all mail to Elections Canada, as required.
We took special follow-up measures to assess the situation every day. We were in direct contact with Elections Canada every day to get the job done.
I can't speak on behalf of Elections Canada, but I can assure you that we assigned top priority to the project and that we monitored it very closely at every phase.
Conservative
Pierre Paul-Hus Conservative Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
So you are confirming that at Canada Post, everything was in place to ensure that the special ballots would be delivered as quickly as possible.
Is that right?