Government Operations Committee on Oct. 28th, 2025

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

The Liberals have been at the helm this whole time, so do you think the absence of a clear modernization plan from this government is a big reason that we're now seeing Canada Post in financial distress?

[Patrick Bartlett]

There was a plan. It just needed to be acted upon.

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

If you turned back the clock, which two or three reforms would you have seen to be the first priorities that the government should have done for Canada Post to secure its future?

[Patrick Bartlett]

I'd say conversion to community mailboxes and ending the rural moratorium.

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

What I'm hearing from you today is that this wasn't inevitable. The writing was on the wall, but nobody picked up a pen to fix it. Do you think it's too late for Canada Post since the Liberals waited so long?

[Patrick Bartlett]

No, I don't think it's too late for Canada Post; however, we need to move quickly, and we need to move carefully. Canada Post can't, for instance, deal with its deficits by large price increases. Government needs to fund it until these changes kick into place.

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

I wonder if you could describe for me a little bit more the chaos that our small and medium-sized businesses and your members have had to undergo because of this chaos and this mess.

[Patrick Bartlett]

Let me go back to last year's labour disruption. There is a mail service provider that provides a great service to its customers and is very supportive of its employees. During the strike last year, its business virtually shut down. It maintained its employees with great loss to the business because there was really very little work for them to do. It was very disruptive. It hurt them financially, and the ongoing—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

I'm sorry; I have to interrupt because it is past our time.

We're going to go to Mr. Gasparro.

Colleagues, I'm hearing from our interpreters that our connection to Mr. Bartlett is dropping again. We only have about 25 minutes left, so I'm going to suggest to not direct any questions to Mr. Bartlett for the moment. We'll try to have IT connect with to him to fix his connection.

Mr. Bartlett, our IT people will contact you separately by phone to try to get this worked out.

Go ahead, Mr. Gasparro.

[Vince Gasparro, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Mr. Deegan, it's nice to see you again. I know, obviously from my experience serving on the board of Postmedia, that Canada Post work stoppages have made it very difficult for some newspapers. You touched on it in your opening remarks. I can tell you that this had an impact on the circulation of several ethnic newspapers in my riding of Eglinton—Lawrence such as the Corriere Canadese, which is a large, daily Italian newspaper located also in Eglinton—Lawrence. This obviously impacts community and ethnic newspapers that keep Canadians informed.

Can you just drill down a little bit in terms of how the recent strikes and work stoppages have affected local news?

[Paul Deegan]

The newspaper that you're referring to, the Corriere Canadese, is owned by a former parliamentarian, Joe Volpe, and is a great example. These newspapers are vital to the communities they serve. I believe that it's the largest Italian-language newspaper in North America, and it's had a major impact. We had basically very little notice in terms of the strike and, all of a sudden, you cannot get your newspaper out, so it's played a major role. It's a real hardship, and it's the uncertainty that makes it very difficult. Do you decide to print or not? You're not sure if the stoppage is going to end.

Perhaps I could turn to Murray Elliott, who's a community publisher in Olds, Alberta, to explain what this meant for him and his colleagues in Alberta.

[Murray Elliott, Vice-President, Great West Media LP, News Media Canada]

Thanks for allowing me to be part of this conversation.

My name is Murray Elliott. I'm the vice-president of Great West Media, which is an Alberta-based company. I'm also a small-town publisher.

The recent Canada Post strike and job actions have created a number of challenges. We maintain robust websites and easy access to e-editions, but people are still starved for accurate, fact-based news, often in that tactile form of a newspaper.

We also played Russian roulette or “let's make a deal” every week: Should I print my full run or not? Our customers also took their chances with us on whether or not we could actually deliver what we promised to deliver.

I know it has created chaos particularly for farm and other rural publications that rely solely on Canada Post. They've lost millions of dollars because their papers were stuck either at the plant or at a closed Canada Post shop.

[Vince Gasparro, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Deegan, typically, how frequently are the newspapers your organization represents physically delivered?

[Paul Deegan]

We represent two classes of publisher, if you will.

We represent urban dailies—newspapers like the Toronto Star—which are delivered seven days per week. We also represent community newspapers, which are weekly publications.

To Murray's point, it's that lack of certainty. Do I print or not? That's a huge expense. For the advertisers, do they advertise or not? The problem is with these ongoing work stoppages. Advertisers then look for other solutions. That's a problem.

The lifeline for community news publishers is that physical print edition. They cannot make a buck as a digital-only publisher. If you want to cover cops, courts and city hall, etc., you need the advertising from the local Chevy dealer and the flyer from the Canadian Tire franchisee to actually make money in this business and to support your newsroom. It's vital.

[Vince Gasparro, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Very quickly, Mr. Deegan, the move toward digital media has affected everyone, obviously, but especially traditional media.

Can you share very quickly with the committee any lessons learned from this experience that could maybe help in a Canada Post transformation?

[Paul Deegan]

We're relying much more on really investing in high-quality content. That's really the key for publishers. Again, especially at the community level, it's that physical newspaper that's so important.

There's one example I would use in terms of the transformation of Canada Post. For several years, I was an executive at CN. The top railroaders in the world are Canadians. Jim Vena runs Union Pacific. He's about to pull off the biggest rail merger in history. I would suggest that Canada Post should talk to people like Jim Vena.

The chief operating officer of Norfolk Southern is John Orr, who is another Canadian. The chief operating officer of CSX is another Canadian. These people are world-class logistics experts. I would think Canada Post should consult with people like that.

[Vince Gasparro, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Mr. Lalande, thank you very much for coming here today and thank you for your public service.

I apologize. I'd ask the question in French, but I don't think you'd understand and I probably wouldn't understand what I'm saying. I'm working on it. I did that for my Bloc colleagues.

You eloquently pointed out some of the necessities that Canada Post provides in your community. I think many of us share that opinion.

Do you believe that if it is going to be sustainable in the long term, so our kids and grandkids will be able to benefit from the postal service, the organization needs to be rightsized?

The fact is that it's hemorrhaging $10 million per day, it's losing close to $1 billion per year and is effectively insolvent. Do you believe there does need to be a modernization of the organization so future generations can benefit from it?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

I am afraid there is no time left for an answer.

We will go to Ms. Gaudreau. Perhaps it can be answered during her intervention.

Madam Gaudreau, please, for six minutes.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

The witness will have the opportunity to answer later on.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Lalande, I've heard a lot of things today. I appreciate your attention to detail.

It's easy to pass the buck and say we should have taken action earlier. We now have a situation that calls for a thoughtful approach. The president and CEO will submit his report in a few days, and you'll have an opportunity to consult with the CEO and the minister.

Let's talk about land use planning. As we've already heard, there are differences in Quebec. Very remote regions come to mind. Quebec also has the duplex model, which is fundamentally different from models with towers and a lot of infrastructure.

In my opinion, $3 million to uphold democracy is absurd.

What do UMQ members say when this issue of mailboxes and accessibility comes up?

[Xavier-Antoine Lalande]

As I said earlier, the UMQ represents all the municipalities in Quebec and as you noted, the realities are different from one municipality to another. The challenges associated with community mailboxes are more significant in big cities, which are densely populated. Canada Post has to consult municipalities to take a look into urban planning before community mailboxes are installed.

There's still an opportunity to use space in suburban towns and to properly plan for the installation of community mailboxes. However, a one-size-fits-all approach should not be used across Quebec because as you noted, remote villages have quite a different reality. Economic activity revolves around an outlet and so it's important to have postal services in those areas.

Planning for the installation of mailboxes must take into account the accommodations cities will be required to provide, such as snow removal and cleanliness. Regrettably, these spaces risk being misused as dumpsters and mail will have to be removed from these dumpsters. This is a municipal area of jurisdiction so Canada Post, along with municipalities, must review this issue comprehensively.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

I know that people are trying to use digital technology. However, my riding of Laurentides—Labelle has very poor cellphone coverage and connectivity.

How would the UMQ meet those needs, not just for municipalities, but also for notaries, when it comes to legal documents? It has been said that parcels are the cash cow, not mail. We'll get into that later.

What are your thoughts on that?

[Xavier-Antoine Lalande]

Our recommendation is to review the frequency of mail delivery. Canada Post can reconsider daily delivery.

Mail can be delivered every two or three days in some areas. We raised that idea in our submission.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Regional vitality depends on access to public service.

At what cost should this public service be maintained?

[Xavier-Antoine Lalande]

It's up to Canada Post and the government to conduct such an analysis.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

I'd like to come back to franchise operators that use the service.

How effective do you find that?