Government Operations Committee on Feb. 11th, 2022

[Manon Fortin]

Yes, we understand that our unions are supportive of the idea. As I said before, we are collaborating with our unions on a great many fronts. That includes our community hubs and the MyMoney Loan initiative. We may not agree on everything, but we do agree on providing a great service.

Relative to postal banking, as I mentioned, we are expanding our services.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Could you speak to how this ties into reconciliation, given that I just shared with you that 10% of indigenous communities don't have a bank or credit union? I mean, this is a serious issue. You have an opportunity to advance reconciliation in a real and meaningful way.

[Manon Fortin]

Yes. For now what we are doing is we are testing. We are testing and trying to find partnerships for what might work in both indigenous communities and rural communities. We'll have to see where that goes from there. For the moment, though, we are not intending to launch full banking services.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you very much.

We'll now go to Mr. McCauley for five minutes.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Thanks again for your feedback.

Again, from our earlier studies of postal banking, I note that almost every place where the NDP comments that it's a great idea, the postal services have been privatized. I don't know why the NDP keeps pushing for the privatization of Canada Post.

Let me ask you this. You have been interim for six months. How is being interim affecting your ability to deal with some of these massive losses that Canada Post is facing? Do you have full control to do what is needed to achieve the changes?

[Manon Fortin]

My job as an operator is to provide the best service possible while keeping our employees safe, and to get through this pandemic, now in wave five, with the best service possible and the safety of our employees.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

If that's the case, who at Canada Post is responsible, then, for the financial oversight to achieve the mandate of fiscal sustainability, if your focus is solely—not to be argumentative—on the great service?

[Manon Fortin]

That would be our executive team.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Okay. What is the board's view, then, on these crippling, eye-watering losses that taxpayers will have to make up?

[Manon Fortin]

I cannot speak for the board. I'm sorry.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Okay. That's fair enough.

What's going on with the market share? I understand that the market share for parcel delivery is dropping. Is that correct?

[Manon Fortin]

Maybe I'll have Mr. Pitre answer that question.

[Serge Pitre]

If we are talking about pure market share, you are right, but we are still growing in net numbers. Basically, e-commerce in Canada is growing. Our business is growing. Obviously—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Are you concerned about the loss in market share, though? Canada Post's costs are significantly higher than those of your competitors. Canada Post is losing market share. Is that not rather worrisome?

[Serge Pitre]

Well, basically, that's a big reason for investing into our network, to increase our capacity to be able to service Canadians based on the needs and growth of e-commerce.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Has the investment in such services reversed the decline or the market share loss?

[Serge Pitre]

As we mentioned, we are currently investing to meet the demand. Obviously, that demand was accelerated by the COVID situation and brought in volume the whole market did not expect, in the short term.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

All right.

Is Canada Post losing market share because of pricing, capacity issues or for other reasons?

[Serge Pitre]

Basically, the base where the market is growing so fast, and the ability for everybody to answer that.... There has been an issue with capacity in the marketplace. That's why, as Manon mentioned, we advanced some of our investment plan—to add that capacity and to service the marketplace in Canada.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

When do you expect the market share erosion to be reversed with these investments? Your competitors are facing the same issues with COVID and everything else. They don't have the advantage of Canada Post's size and everything else.

[Serge Pitre]

As Manon mentioned earlier, the new plant in Toronto will be online early next year, adding multi-million added capacity to our network. This will help us.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

The 2018 announcement of the new vision says—and you may not be able to answer that—that Canada Post “will provide high-quality service at a reasonable price”. Who is deciding the metric for a high-quality service, and who is deciding the metric for a reasonable price? You may have to get back to us.

One of the items said that you're going to be enhancing the remittance, which we just spoke about earlier. How much extra revenue has that enhanced remittance focus brought in for Canada Post?

The reason I bring that up is that very little attention is brought to the massive losses Canada Post is incurring. EY Reporting and others have said that $400 million a year in potential savings is lost by the abandoning of community mailboxes. In response to that, Canada Post said they were going to enhance the remittances.

How much of that $400 million has been offset by enhanced focus on the remittance program? Is it a significant amount?

[Serge Pitre]

I'm sorry, but I don't have that information with me now. We'd be pleased to—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Would you be able to get back to us?

[Serge Pitre]

Yes.