Government Operations Committee on Dec. 11th, 2025

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

Do you know what your interest rates are? You were talking about—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

I'm afraid that is our time.

We are going to suspend right now for a couple of moments to reboot our system. I apologize.

We're suspended.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

We are back in session.

Go ahead, Ms. Rochefort, please, for five minutes.

[Pauline Rochefort, Liberal, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

Hello, and thank you for this opportunity to speak. I'm going to ask questions that come from my riding, actually.

The first one is on interlibrary loans. We know they're an essential part of how libraries in Canada operate, and they rely on Canada Post. They're very concerned, as you know, that the requirement for Governor in Council approval to increase postal rates will be removed and that you'll then have the ability to increase rates. What are your comments on that? We know that libraries rely on Canada Post very much to ship books across the country.

[Doug Ettinger]

That's something we're proud to have provided for very many years. These are important policies for us, and we will continue to honour them without question. We have no plans and no interest in not having those programs. It would be against the needs for education, for inclusion and for fairness, and it would be against our basic values, whether it's providing reduced rates on postage for public libraries or whether it's providing free materials to the blind and the CNIB and so on.

We saw that media coverage. We have no interest, period. We will continue to support those programs, and we're very proud to do it, for a lot of reasons.

[Pauline Rochefort, Liberal, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

Thank you for that answer.

You spoke about the accommodation delivery program, but as Madame Gaudreau mentioned, we've had several witnesses come forward—people like mayors—who are unaware of the service. I've been going around in my riding, because I have a very rural riding, telling seniors who are concerned about the community mailboxes that they don't have to worry because there is going to be an accommodation program, but when I look at the program, I see it as being narrow.

I'm wondering how you are going to ensure that it's there to serve seniors and other populations. How are you going to ramp it up for the increased...?

[Doug Ettinger]

That is a great and important question. We're very sensitive to that. We've had the accommodation program for many, many years now, so we have some experience with it, but it is critical, not only for seniors but also for folks with functional limitations. We do a lot of things in terms of providing Braille trays in the community mailboxes and providing sliding trays in them at different heights. We can do door-to-door delivery for folks who simply can't get out to the community mailbox, which is very valid.

It is actually an easy program to apply for, but we have to do a better job on that. I think we need to do a much better job of promoting it to Canadians, and we're committed to that. It's also free. We will provide white-glove treatment on that. We'll make sure that we promote that properly, and you have my commitment to do that. We have to support the folks who need the support on this, and we intend to do so.

[Pauline Rochefort, Liberal, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

I'm going to keep you to your word on that, because if I have a complaint, I'm going to direct it to you. I expect that there will be people who will apply for especially the house delivery.

With Christmas approaching, another comment I received from some of the citizens in my riding is that they are concerned about mailing right now, given the experience last year. We know that there's a settlement being negotiated.

What's holding us back, given the importance of this period for so many people who want to ship things to their loved ones? What's holding us back from confirming and moving forward?

[Doug Ettinger]

I can't get into the details. We've agreed with the CUPW, our union, that we will not release any details, but we've signed agreements in principle for both the urban and rural mail carriers and the sortation folks. We're at the table as we speak, working on all the legal wording in a tentative agreement that we hope to sign right away.

However, I would say that we're open for business. We're able to handle the business right now. Our performance levels are in the high nineties. We're able to do it safely and effectively. This might not sound right, but I'm mailing Christmas cards, which I love doing every year, and gifts to family in Nova Scotia. I have confidence in the system right now. It's easy for me to say, but we're there, we're strong and everybody's at work. There is no reason that your parcel or letter won't get through between now and Christmas.

[Pauline Rochefort, Liberal, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

I'm out of time.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thank you very much.

Madame Gaudreau.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Ettinger, the German postal service started down the path of privatization in 1995, as you know. The government decided to transfer parcel operations to DHL. The German postal service no longer exists today, because it wasn't profitable. The rules were really liberalized for DHL, and it became a virtual monopoly, with rules for the mail service and rules for private services.

My fear is that the government will let Canada Post die a slow death, so it can sell the Crown corporation to Purolator, and that players like Intelcom will only get bigger. Otherwise, why would you want to give up parcel delivery?

[Doug Ettinger]

That is, again, a very good question.

We have no intention of privatizing Canada Post—none. In terms of the 45-day plan that was submitted to the minister, there is no plan for privatization. There is a plan to transform Canada Post to essentially adjust to the needs of today's consumers and customers, whom we value very much. We're not changing just for the fun of it—and it's not fun—but because our customers are telling us that they're using the post office very differently from how they did back in the 1980s and 1990s. That little thing called the Internet came along, so now people use the post office differently.

I know the story of Deutsche Post and DHL quite well, as well as the story of the Royal Mail. We have no intention of going down that route. We're really trying to, as I said earlier, make Canada Post a preferred provider to Canadian business and to small business, which we really need to do a better job with to help them thrive and grow.

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

Do I understand correctly that, under these reforms, parcels will no longer be delivered to people's homes? Isn't that what we are talking about?

[Doug Ettinger]

I'm sorry. I lost the last part of it.

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

As part of these reforms, parcels will have to be picked up at the main post office, instead of being delivered to people's homes. Is that correct?

[Doug Ettinger]

Yes.

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

Mr. Chair, I'd like to take a bit more time, if I may.

Mr. Ettinger, people are going to have to drive a half-hour to pick up their parcels, when they can just click a box online to have one of your competitors provide home delivery. How can you possibly be successful and profitable doing that? I'm a businesswoman, and that doesn't strike me as a sustainable model.

[Doug Ettinger]

Yes, that's a good question. The community mailboxes aren't perfect, but they're a very strong way to deliver parcels. Many people may not realize that the community mailboxes are more like a parcel locker. I think some of us have the vision that they're just for letters, but 90% of the parcels that come through our system can go through a community mailbox.

They're not for every location. They're not for every village or town, but they're safe, they're secure and they reduce GHG emissions.

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

They need to be huge.

[Doug Ettinger]

Yes, and they reduce injuries. Injuries are still a big problem for us. We've cut back on them by about 50%, but community mailboxes can do an even better job with our employees, and we want to keep them safe.

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

Thank you for the extra time, Mr. Chair. I really appreciate it. I'll consider it my Christmas gift.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

I appreciate you for clarifying that.

Mr. Patzer, go ahead, please.

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

Thank you very much, everyone, for being here.

I just want to start off by asking you, Mr. Ettinger, what the definition of “rural” is that Canada Post uses.

[Doug Ettinger]

Right now, what we have to work with is the one that's been in place since 1994. We'll take the government's guidance on that. I know there are some other programs that they're working on in terms of updated definitions of rural versus urban. In our plan, we will look to reflect the latest information from Stats Canada. In 1994, I think the country had 29 million people. Now we have 42 million. Small towns have become cities and so on. Rural areas have become suburban.

There are a lot of areas that were designated rural back in that time, and now they're very much suburban—almost urban. We have some duplication with our dealer network and with our corporate stores. Those are areas that we would look at carefully to see where we could reduce some duplication.