Evidence of meeting #25 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was post.
A recording is available from Parliament.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
Absolutely. We don't want to have any disruptions in service.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Thank you very much.
I'd like to turn it over....
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
I have a question, and then I'll hand it over to Mr. Watson.
I just want a quick update on the rural mail delivery. As you may know, my riding is being impacted quite dramatically by this, so I'm wondering if you can give me an update.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
Yes. We have now reviewed about 300,000 of our rural mailboxes using the safety tool that was designed by experts outside of Canada Post. We are learning more and more as we go along. I think we have markedly improved our ability to communicate with every single householder, not only to let people know that we are going to be reviewing boxes in their region but also to let them know the result of the review.
I'm able to tell you now that according to our safety tool, on the average we're saving about 80% of the rural mailboxes, which represents an increase over time. It has moved from 70% to 80% as we have gathered more and more very specific intelligence. We still have a number of areas to do. As you can imagine, it's not practical to try to do this in the winter when the boxes are piled high, sometimes with snow from snowplows. It's not safe to try to do this review, because you have to actually be out of the car--you may have gone on one of the ride-alongs with our people who are reviewing the boxes--so we're really only able to do it in the months of the year when you have clear visibility and you can be standing on the side of the road measuring the traffic counts for 45 or 50 minutes.
I think we are making great progress. Certainly the number of calls to our call centres has diminished radically. So I think we're much more sensitive to our customers' and your constituents' concerns in that regard.
Conservative
Conservative
Jeff Watson Conservative Essex, ON
Very good.
Ms. Greene, you're obviously satisfied with the end result of this process. I think there are several of us who are probably not “the end justifies the means” kind of people. I think we want to be satisfied by what happened or how we got to where we are.
Your brief is very detailed in terms of what happens after May 16. What's fuzzy is what was done from April 30, when they first served notice, up until May 16. I think we'd like a more detailed accounting of what transpired. Were there any negotiations that happened? When were meetings held?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
Let me answer that. We worked on two fronts. As soon as we got the notification, we were actually on parallel streams, Mr. Watson. First we went to Air Canada to see what was going to be possible and if we could get a delay, to understand more fully how much more money they wanted from us.
Then on the second front, parallel at the same time, we were starting to think about what we could do as an alternative if we were not able to continue this relationship with Air Canada.
So I can assure you that fax on April 30 got lots of attention.
Conservative
Jeff Watson Conservative Essex, ON
I have another question. You're in the middle of a contract, and there's a unilateral termination offered. Was the contract such that either party, either Canada Post or Air Canada, could unilaterally say “meet the new terms or we're out of this”?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
It was, with 120 days' notice.
Conservative
Jeff Watson Conservative Essex, ON
My question then is, Ms. Greene, if you know it takes six months to 12 months to recreate the network, why would Canada Post ever have signed a contract that only gave them 120 days' termination notice?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
That's a good question. That was before my time. We've certainly protected ourselves a lot better in our current contract with Purolator.
Conservative
Jeff Watson Conservative Essex, ON
Do you have six months' notice in that situation with Purolator now?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
No, they have no termination for convenience at all. We can terminate, but Purolator has no termination of convenience.
I don't actually know why it was only 120 days' notice, why that contractual provision was there. But we had a long-standing relationship with Air Canada. We had a relationship that went back decades. So you don't expect your contractor--
Conservative
Jeff Watson Conservative Essex, ON
But you have a greater relationship with the taxpayers of Canada than with Air Canada.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
Yes, we agree with you.
Liberal
Gerard Kennedy Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
What you're hearing from the members are concerns about business practices. Most of us have been contacted, not just in terms of the current event but for information about the northern subsidy that you handle. Because the review has just happened at Canada Post, and there is some part of that review that speaks to some concern about the ongoing viability of Canada Post, we're trying to ascertain the kinds of practices that are being followed. You have close dealing like this in the sense that you have related corporations, and we're not able to get commercial information. So far this has been an exercise in our sort of taking your word that due diligence happened.
Given that the people of Canada are the shareholders, is there some other mechanism that could arise? I don't think anyone around the table wants to cast aspersions on either management or direction, but it's very hard to form an opinion on behalf of the shareholders, whom we represent in the accountability sense, as to whether or not Canada Post practices are all right.
You had a review. We have raised concerns like this. What do management and the board think should be available as mechanisms so that legislators can get assurances when they feel they need them? I think otherwise that this exercise is not that productive.
Chairman of the Board, Canada Post Corporation
I would just start. We had a review. That's one of the processes. One of the recommendations of the review was that there be a review every five years. All we ask is that it be five years from the time the previous review is agreed to as opposed to it constantly being in review.
Having outside experts look at us was a very valuable exercise to the shareholders, to the board, and to management. We do have, as one of our auditors, the Auditor General. We do go through a process every couple of years called the special examination by the Auditor General, which we are going through right now. You do, as shareholder, have the ability to nominate and name all the directors to the board of Canada Post. I think you have a lot more oversight, as you should, than the typical shareholders of a private enterprise.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
If I may comment, Mr. Kennedy, there are a number of other things I would add. Canada Post, since I have been at the company, does a public annual meeting where we stand up in front of anyone who wants to come, and we answer questions on anything that anyone wants to pose to us. We were the first crown corporation in Canada to do that.
We put out an annual report that is the most transparent and open document that our outside, very established and experienced directors on the Canada Post board have ever seen. At some points they ask me if I am worried that we're putting out too much commercially sensitive information. We also publish, warts and all, something called the Canada Post social responsibility report, which looks at every single one of our practices from hiring right down to environmental friendliness. It has measures and metrics in there for performance against almost anything you can think of. Most of the metrics are actually measured by outside, independent third parties. We have an outside auditor for Canada Post as well as the Auditor General as part of the audit team of Canada Post. Every major contract goes to the audit committee of our board. It goes to the full board for their discussion and deliberation. Inside the Canada Post group of companies, we have very elaborate processes and procedures for dealing--
Liberal
Gerard Kennedy Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON
Ms. Greene, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I want to give my last minute to Mr. Volpe.
I just want to say there is nothing I have heard yet that is different from the situation for a private corporation, and because of the public trust involved, I was looking more for the relationship between you and us in terms--
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
It's much more elaborate, Mr. Kennedy.
Liberal
Gerard Kennedy Liberal Parkdale—High Park, ON
Elaborate, though, makes it harder rather than there being a direct line so there is a special means by which certain things can be found out that don't compromise your commercial capability and yet give us some oversight.
I just leave that as a comment.
Mr. Volpe had a quick last question.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Merv Tweed
Your time is up.
I'm going to Mr. Harris, and then we're going to do a one-minute round before this is over.
Mr. Harris.