Transport Committee on March 26th, 2007

[Moya Greene]

I think it's the way we're doing it. I believe we are restoring and maintaining mail delivery within the confines of the safety laws and the safety requirements.

With the benefit of our safety tool, which has been devised by safety experts, we are assessing the road safety conditions that pertain to every rural mailbox.

We are starting, obviously, with the mailboxes for which there was a disruption in service because an employee exercised their right, under safety legislation, to refuse to deliver mail. And we're moving out beyond that to other boxes that could be in jeopardy because of complaints about safety with respect to those boxes. There are about 880 complaints from employees about the safety of certain boxes on their routes.

Mr. Tilson, with our safety assessment tool, we are assessing the safety characteristics of every box. We have maintained 150,000 boxes that would have been in jeopardy because of the ergonomic hazard. We have maintained those boxes through a measure that we are following right now, which is to put a second person in the vehicle so that the stretching that was otherwise going on to deliver the mail no longer has to happen.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

I'll tell you why I asked the question. I understand all that, but most of us, particularly rural members from all sides--and this isn't just me, it's members from every political party in this country--are hearing from their constituents who have lost confidence in Canada Post as far as rural mail delivery goes. It's not my riding in particular. Of course that's the one I'm interested in, but talking to other members from all sides, I've heard that they feel the same way.

The process you described is what was going on before. If an area is deemed to be unsafe by somebody, then we'll shut down the box and we'll put up a community mail box. That's what you were doing before.

[Moya Greene]

No, Mr. Tilson—

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Excuse me. Now you have a directive, as of December 13, to restore rural mail delivery. The first time, on December 27, that was found to be too vague, and then, on February 21, it was lacking specific measures.

I mean, people miss their boxes; they've got to go miles to pick up their mail from superboxes or community boxes, which residents—not the union—think are unsafe.

So I guess that's why I'm asking the question. I know what you did before. What I want to know is what you've been doing since the directive was made.

[Moya Greene]

We are accelerating the assessment of every box. We've got 350 people working throughout Canada, some of them third-party contractors, to accelerate the assessment of these boxes.

In the case of people whose service was interrupted, those assessments will be entirely completed in three months' time, by June. We were delayed in restoring mail in the winter, but even in that case we procured temporary mailboxes and put them in place, so that even with the winter weather conditions, we were able to respond as fast as possible.

With respect to Canadians losing confidence in Canada Post, that would be a terrible thing, because—

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

It sure would--absolutely.

[Moya Greene]

—Canada Post delivers an excellent service. In your riding, Mr. Tilson, as you know, we've had independent IBM surveys done. I'm very proud of our people at Canada Post in Caledon; some of the best service in the country is in Caledon. So it would be a terrible thing for Canadians to lose confidence in Canada Post.

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

Mr. Chair, I continue to get complaints in my riding. Last week, some man called my office and said that his box was going to be shut down and he was going to move to a community box and was given three days' notice. He was told he was going to have communication from Canada Post. He never received that. He was told where the site was. He has looked at the site and believes it's unsafe; it's near a dangerous intersection and has no lighting.

So I guess my question to you is, I understand you communicate with the unions, but do you communicate with the residents?

[Moya Greene]

Yes. It's a completely customized approached, and we are now logging every single contact, Mr. Tilson. We are sometimes with individual homeowners, individual households, on three separate occasions. So it is a completely customized approach to explain, first, why we've had to assess the safety of the box; and then what is going to happen and when the safety assessment will take place; and then we speak with homeowners, if we find some change has to be made, which we try very, very hard not to do, because we know it's an inconvenience to people. But if a change is required, we go back to homeowners and we say, “Here are the options”. We discuss with municipalities where is the best place to put a neighbourhood box or a community box—

[David Tilson, Conservative, Dufferin—Caledon, ON]

I can tell you that in my riding constituents are telling me this communication is not taking place.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Thank you.

I'll have to move—

[Moya Greene]

We'd be very happy—

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

—to Mr. Temelkovski, please.

[Lui Temelkovski, Liberal, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Madam Greene and Mr. Feeney, for coming out today.

Since we introduced the motion initially in the House, there have been a lot of changes made, but what Mr. Tilson is mentioning is that these calls are continuing to come in to our offices, even to this day, that rural mailboxes are being closed down. We understand that entire routes are not being closed down, only portions, or those that have to be closed down, and that they're assessed, and so on. But Canadians are losing their faith in the corporation, and we're asking how you can fix that.

You've mentioned a number of things you've done since the directive was given, that you've accelerated the process and so on, that this fantastic tool has been implemented and used, and that many of them have been restored.

On the second page of your remarks, in the last paragraph, you mentioned, “By applying the safety tool developed by the independent experts, we have been able to restore and maintain delivery to more than 4,000 rural mailboxes since December.” Of the 4,000 you mentioned, can you tell us exactly how many have been restored and how many have been maintained?

[Moya Greene]

I can give you those numbers, Mr. Temelkovski. I don't have them right here, but I can tell you exactly, because we are logging what we are doing in relation to every single box. We are trying very, very hard.

I apologize to all members of this committee for any complaints they are taking about this safety problem that has arisen. We are trying very hard to keep you and your colleagues and all your colleagues in the House fully apprised of everything we are doing when we are in your constituencies in relation to every box. I don't have it in my head, but I have it, and I will be happy to provide it within 24 hours.

[Lui Temelkovski, Liberal, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

I appreciate that, and I'll wait for it.

In terms of the plan, the minister also asked that the corporation provide a plan to him. I understand that there have been a number of plans that have been put forth.

[Moya Greene]

Two.

[Lui Temelkovski, Liberal, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

Can you explain or tell us a little bit more about the plans?

[Moya Greene]

Yes. The first plan was really put forward in the context of our normal corporate plan. It identified how much would have to be spent by the corporation to retain as many safe lot-line delivery situations in Canada as we could. And it put those numbers over the five-year horizon of the plan.

As I mentioned, we have accelerated the assessment of the 840,000 lot-line delivery situations in Canada so that the actual assessment will now be completed over a three-year period. We have reprofiled the amount of money we would need to spend so we could accelerate that, and we have included the costs of maintaining the so far 150,000 or so lot-line boxes that were at risk of having to change their service because of the ergonomic hazard. Those costs, as you can imagine, to have a second person in the car to deliver mail, are very substantial.

[Lui Temelkovski, Liberal, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

So the second plan is to accelerate the time at which you will have—

[Moya Greene]

It will take from five years to three years to assess all 840,000 boxes in Canada. As you know, they're spread all over the country.

[Lui Temelkovski, Liberal, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

What percentage of those 840,000 do you expect will not make the grade for you to deliver the rural mail?

[Moya Greene]

Mr. Temelkovski, that is the $64,000 question, and I wish I could give you a precise answer. I can't, and let me explain why. The geography we're talking about is vastly dissimilar from place to place. You can have a road that looks the same, but the actual configuration of the box on that road is what matters. So if it's on a blind turn, or if it's on a hill, or if it's in a place where there's a double yellow line, a box that's literally 500 or 600 feet away may not be safe. So I cannot tell you.... Of the 849,000, we have only assessed 27,000 boxes so far.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Thank you, Ms. Greene.

What I might ask, Ms. Greene, is if you would send the information you're going to send through the committee chair, please.

[Moya Greene]

Absolutely.