Government Operations Committee on Nov. 4th, 2025

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thank you.

We'll go to Ms. Sudds, please, for six minutes.

[Jenna Sudds, Liberal, Kanata, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Monger, have there been any communication between your municipality and Canada Post?

How important are Canada Post's services to the operations of your municipality?

[Karine Monger]

We certainly use Canada Post's services a lot as individuals, but also for the operations of our municipality. As I said earlier, those are the only services available in our area, the only way we have to communicate with our citizens. We use those services every day.

I would say that communication with Canada Post is difficult. It's hard to navigate through the organization and find the right person to talk to when we need information about services, contracts, mail delivery in our RCM or air service contracts for mail delivery.

[Jenna Sudds, Liberal, Kanata, ON]

Thank you very much.

My second question is for Mr. Aubie.

You made some comments in your opening remarks with respect to leveraging the opportunity of the multiple locations of Canada Post across this country and looking at opportunities for affordable housing. I'd love to hear a bit more of your thoughts on that and on your discussions within FCM as we move forward in providing input on that.

[Michael Aubie]

Certainly, I think, all Canadians from coast to coast to coast have seen that right now there are real challenges when it comes to affordable housing. Really, when we reimagine Canada Post and what it will be in the future, we see an opportunity to help address the need for affordable housing for Canadians.

As for leveraging that opportunity, what we see is that we have post offices right across this country, many times underutilized, and to us that presents an opportunity in terms of being able to free up space on those existing sites, either for constructing new homes or for leveraging modular housing in particular, which we think is an exciting new opportunity that's coming up.

We would encourage this committee and Canada Post to explore that as a potential option as well, not just for being able to support Canada Post financially going forward, but also for being able to identify additional affordable housing for Canadians.

[Jenna Sudds, Liberal, Kanata, ON]

Again for Mr. Aubie, how would you like to see your FCM membership engaged in terms of consultations on the future of Canada Post?

[Michael Aubie]

Certainly, it is about an ongoing conversation. We want to be at the table as these discussions begin to occur. As we've said, especially for rural Canada—that's where our primary concern is at this time—Canada Post is a lifeline for these communities. We want to ensure that on any change that may occur our members are at the table.

Fundamentally, if Canada Post, for example, is looking at making changes to rural postal services in a particular community, we would expect that there would be consultation with that community. Additionally, at a higher level, FCM is here and is ready to speak directly, not just with the committee today, but also with the minister and the department as changes are being contemplated going forward.

[Jenna Sudds, Liberal, Kanata, ON]

Incredible. Thank you for that.

As we contemplate at this committee the reality that Canada Post is losing roughly $10 million a day and as we discuss the work that's under way within Canada Post in looking at how best to modernize, how, from your viewpoint, can that work proceed while taking in both a rural and an urban lens?

[Michael Aubie]

I'll give you a great example.

For example, I know that Canada Post recently has begun exploring additional banking services. A good example of this is the KOHO announcement for just online banking. That's certainly an interesting idea to generate additional revenue and to provide critical banking services to Canadians, whether urban or rural, but admittedly, access to banking is more of a rural challenge right now.

The one thing I would say on that front is that while it's commendable that it's doing that activity, for so many rural Canadians—as noted by other witnesses here today—there's a real issue right now for cellular and digital connectivity for rural Canada. When you're looking at banking services such as the KOHO one, which is an online bank, it just fundamentally underscores the need to make sure that you also have that bricks and mortar service there as well. We need to make sure that the post office itself is physically located there if you're going with a digital banking service.

Really, we just want to be able to ensure that as it is exploring different options—such as, for example, banking—we still have that bricks and mortar access as well for those Canadians, because so many rural Canadians don't have easy access to digital or even cellular connectivity.

[Jenna Sudds, Liberal, Kanata, ON]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Madam Gaudreau, please go ahead.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Piché, thank you very much for joining us and for representing our aging population.

You said you've worked in the RCM of Antoine‑Labelle for many years.

I'm concerned for seniors. You said you provide important escort and transportation services to seniors in the RCM, especially those who live in Mont‑Laurier.

I'm also worried about the digital shift. The population is being asked to go online. Meanwhile, the current laws contain no safeguards against possible fraud.

How are seniors adapting to this shift?

They must be wondering whether the information they're getting is real and whether they should continue receiving mail.

[Mariève Piché]

That's a complicated question.

We talked about digital literacy earlier, meaning everything that relates to knowing how these tools work.

I know that many of the seniors we work with want to adapt and keep up with the times. That said, many have contacted us over the last few months, because they were the victims of digital fraud, as were some of their loved ones. It completely turned them off learning about digital tools or getting those tools.

A lot of things are happening right now in relation to the digital space.

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

Mr. St‑Amour talked about the cellular coverage issue.

I know your RCM did something about Internet access, but what about other municipalities you work in, other places where your volunteers go to help seniors?

[Mariève Piché]

In some municipalities, it's complicated. The Internet is still not available everywhere.

When it comes to technology, some smaller municipalities further north in the RCM don't have Internet access.

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

What about seniors who don't use digital tools? You said that 25% of your volunteers don't use digital tools either. You have to take them into consideration. They really need you.

During the pandemic, the postal system was often used to communicate information to your volunteers and those seniors.

[Mariève Piché]

All our official communications are sent by mail, because we can't use email. You talked about the 25% of volunteers who don't use digital tools. I need to point out that only 10% of the seniors we provide home support to use digital tools.

That means 90% of the seniors we work with don't use those tools. They don't have an email address, a computer or a cellphone. That means we have to use the mail to send them our official communications, or call them.

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

Thank you very much, Ms. Piché.

We all have to be more vigilant. I don't know whether it's happened to you, Mr. Chair, but sometimes we get text messages from international numbers. I can understand why seniors are hesitant to use digital tools.

Ms. Monger, thank you very much for joining us.

Although the sound cut out a little before, you don't need to worry; we heard most of what you said.

You were scheduled to appear before the committee a while ago. Could you tell us what happened?

[Karine Monger]

Yes, I can.

I didn't receive the committee-approved headset in time. It was supposed to take two weeks to send it to me from Ottawa, which means it would have arrived after my scheduled appearance. I think I was supposed to appear on October 23 at first, so we had to postpone, because I didn't have the headset.

That said, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Marilène Gill's staff for sending me the headset. She is our MP.

The headset was sent from Sept‑Îles, so that I would get it in time for the meeting. This is a good example of how postal service delays can be problematic. We have to deal with serious delays, because of how far we are and because Canada Post is the only service provider in the area.

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

There's something I find somewhat troubling. You talked about the issues related to the delivery of medicines, but we also have to think about medical equipment. We've heard of people in Îles-de-la-Madeleine who need supplies for their ostomy. They can't wait two weeks.

They say a maximum of two or three deliveries a week might be possible at some point. Have you been consulted on that? Were you told your situation is not like the others?

[Karine Monger]

We were never consulted.

As I said, Canada Post is the only delivery service provider in our area. If service is disrupted, we don't have another option. You talked about the delivery of medicines. That is certainly a basic needs issue.

You asked about limiting delivery service to two or three times a week. That's what we have now. We already get our deliveries by airmail, and under the contract for our region, mail is delivered three days a week.

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

In short, you don't want an even more limited delivery service.

My time is up.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Mr. Patzer, go ahead, please. You have five minutes.

[Jeremy Patzer, Conservative, Swift Current—Grasslands—Kindersley, SK]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses for coming.

I want to pick up on the thread about access to services. I have a letter from one of the villages I represent here. They have to send in water samples weekly, and they have only Canada Post as an option to send that.

Mr. Aubie, I guess this one is for you. I think the definition of “rural” is a very important piece. Do you have handy FCM's working definition of rural?