Government Operations Committee on Feb. 24th, 2026

[Carrie Chisholm]

As the vice-president of product management and customer experience, I am not privy to those direct conversations, so I could not tell you what is being asked or what details are being asked about in terms of clarification of our plan. I'm just not privy to those conversations.

[Harb Gill, Conservative, Windsor West, ON]

Is that my time, sir?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

That's your time. Thank you.

Ms. Rochefort, please go ahead.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, madam. I have just three questions for you.

I know there's been a lot of discussion about the preferential postal rates given to two groups: libraries and blind Canadians. I was wondering if you could confirm your intention to maintain preferential tariffs for these two groups, because I know how critical it is for them.

[Carrie Chisholm]

Thank you for your question.

As I mentioned in my opening statement, Canada Post was happy to hear that a change is being proposed in Bill C-15 to remove literature for the blind and to reduce postage for library mailings.

Regardless of whether those provisions were included in Bill C-15, Canada Post would have continued to honour those services. They're long-standing traditions that we have been doing for some time, since 1898 for literature for the blind and since 1939 for reduced postage for library mailings.

We're very proud to honour those services, and we have no intention of making any changes to them.

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

Thank you.

My second question is about services in rural communities, a topic that was discussed earlier. There are a number of rural communities in my riding. I'm thinking of my own village, Astorville, where we are lucky enough to have a great post office.

How are you going to ensure that you continue to provide good service to rural regions across Canada?

[Carrie Chisholm]

Thank you for your question.

We have two sides to our mandate, which are to remain financially sustainable and to make sure we are still delivering to every address in Canada.

Part of the national service and infrastructure we currently have set up for Canadians includes retail post offices and making sure that people have access to their post offices and the services within them.

Rural, remote and indigenous communities are a significant part of our Canadian economy, and they are an important part of the modernization that will need to take place as part of how we transform to be financially sustainable. As I mentioned, it is important that, once the plan is approved, the plan is made available to Canadians so that they understand what it means. We will also make sure to engage with our rural, remote and indigenous communities and prioritize the protection of those vital services as we go forward.

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

Lastly, how are you going to guarantee services for people with reduced mobility and seniors? Many of these people in my riding have expressed concerns.

[Carrie Chisholm]

Thank you for your question.

As I mentioned, we have a delivery accommodation program, which has been around since 2014. It may not be completely well known, although we're very proud of it. We have certainly been speaking a lot more to it to bring better awareness of the program and what it contains.

The intention of the program is to make sure that mail, direct marketing and parcels remain accessible to all Canadians. The program is free. It currently has 17,000 Canadians registered as part of it. However, it does naturally ebb and flow. We have had up to 40,000 Canadian addresses as part of it.

When I say ebb and flow, I mean that we offer seasonal options in which an individual would perhaps prefer, during the winter months, to look at something because they have concerns about accessing their mailbox due to snow or ice. It offers a variety of different options, depending on people's needs.

For us, it is certainly a program we're extremely proud of. It will underpin a lot of the transformation plan to make sure that there's an awareness and an understanding of how you can apply for the program and what options are available, because different options could service different needs. We want to make sure that it's not one-size-fits-all.

You'll continue to hear about that a lot from us. Again, we are quite proud of it. It has been available for some time, and it remains available.

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

Thank you for that.

That will be all, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Go ahead, Mr. Patzer.

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

Thank you very much.

I wanted to pick up on something. When it comes to the transformation plan, has the minister given you a timeline for when he will approve your plan? Do you know when that is?

[Carrie Chisholm]

I haven't been part of those direct conversations, in my position, in terms of providing a timeline. I can tell you that the conversations are ongoing in terms of asking questions. I'm not aware of a specific timeline, but I'm not part of the direct conversations with the minister's office.

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

If you guys already had an approved strategic plan, how much money could you have really saved?

[Carrie Chisholm]

The transformation plan would be multi-year.

If you think back to what was announced in September, with respect to some of the items we've talked about today—community mailboxes, our retail network, changing our delivery standards for letter mail and the regulated rate process—all those things will take time. They're not instantaneous. We need to make sure that there aren't any impacts to Canadians and that we go through a consultation process. It certainly wouldn't be that, if it was approved tomorrow, we would return to financial sustainability by the end of 2026.

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

There was a strategic plan submitted five years ago, and it wasn't approved. It's just been sitting there in the background, on the back burner.

My point is this: If the strategic plan had been approved when it was submitted five years ago, do you think it's possible that you wouldn't be in as big of a mess as you are in today?

[Carrie Chisholm]

I can't comment on the elements of the strategic plan that was submitted five years ago.

There are a lot of compounding factors related to our financial situation. Between Commissioner Kaplan's report and the announcement by the minister in September, there are ways Canada Post can really start to turn a corner and change the financial position we're currently in, while still being able to stick to, of course, our mandate of delivering to every Canadian address and making sure we're returning to financial sustainability.

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

What factors, in your opinion, have had the biggest impact on you in the last couple of years, putting you $750 million in the hole, year over year?

[Carrie Chisholm]

As I mentioned at the beginning, our network is designed to be a national network, and it is designed to deliver. It was predominantly designed, at the beginning, to deliver letter mail. In 2006, we delivered 5.5 billion letters. Today, we're delivering less than half of that. On average, people typically get only two letter mail pieces a week, compared with seven pieces 20 years ago. We have a national network that was built for that, and we just don't have the volume to be able to cover the cost of that network.

Things need to change. Some of the elements of the September announcement are about moving our delivery standards so that they are no longer required to be two, three or four days. It's about moving to a wider date range—three to seven days, as an example. Something like that would allow us to move away from having to transport letter mail in the air in order to make the network, which in itself would be a cost to the operational savings. A combination of those things would really help move us forward.

Again, having a national network designed for letter mail but with less than half of what we used to have is a challenge.

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

That's not a change you can just make on the fly. Is that what you're saying? Otherwise, the organization has refused to make that change on the fly.

[Carrie Chisholm]

The transformation plan is a multi-year plan, and it includes multiple different things. It's not a one-part piece. It is tied to the different elements announced by the minister and supported in the Kaplan report. It's not something we can get approval on and proceed with as an in-year change to our financial position. We need to make sure we're consulting with Canadians and engaging with the municipalities that are impacted as we move towards implementing the changes, in order to return ourselves to financial sustainability.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Ms. Khalid.

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

I believe Mr. Osborne has more questions than I do. I'll take whatever remaining time he allows me.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Go ahead for five minutes, please, Mr. Osborne.