Evidence of meeting #26 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 45th Parliament, 1st 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
Thank you. I appreciate that.
From my first day in this job, safety has been our number one priority. It's pretty clear around the world that companies that focus on safety not only for their employees but with their suppliers are the most successful.
Bloc
Xavier Barsalou-Duval Bloc Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC
I asked you which minister you had the opportunity to discuss this with. Have any ministers questioned you?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
With all of the ministers.... I mean, in terms of safety—
Bloc
Xavier Barsalou-Duval Bloc Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC
All the ministers have questioned you on this issue. They came to your office and asked you what you were doing. Isn't that right?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
Not about this—no.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
No, this is the first time this issue has come up in my seven years in the job.
Bloc
Xavier Barsalou-Duval Bloc Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC
So no ministers have called you or approached you to tell you that there was a problem at Canada Post.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
No, in any way, shape or form; this is the first time this issue has been tabled.
Bloc
Xavier Barsalou-Duval Bloc Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC
Okay. I'm asking you because I have here a letter dated September 26, 2023, from the Canadian Trucking Alliance. In this letter, which is addressed to Minister Jean‑Yves Duclos, the alliance states that there is a major problem at Canada Post. It says that it has contacted several ministers regarding this issue and that it has also contacted Canada Post, but that it has not received a satisfactory response. It has been unable to get answers to its questions and the problem remains unresolved.
In a nutshell, what you're telling me is that the ministers who have served so far have not done their job because they did not follow up on this letter—just like you, for that matter. Is that correct?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
All I'll say is that this is the first time this issue has been tabled. If you have strong evidence, which you believe strongly in, please get it to us today and we will follow up on it immediately.
Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Schiefke
Thank you very much, Mr. Barsalou‑Duval.
Thank you, Mr. Ettinger.
Mr. Muys, the floor is yours. You have five minutes, sir.
Conservative
Dan Muys Conservative Flamborough—Glanbrook—Brant North, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses who are here today.
To Mr. Ettinger and Mr. Brisson, in regard to the story in La Presse and the examples that have been raised by Monsieur Groleau and Monsieur Barsalou-Duval, and the allegations that have been made, you indicated there were some internal investigations that were done. Were the results of those made public at all?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
No, I don't believe they were, but as we do on all these things, we take them very seriously. We were not able to find any substance to those allegations.
Again, we did not receive anything other than the article that we saw in La Presse. We followed up.
I'd love to get information. I wouldn't “love”—it's a terrible thing. If anyone on this committee or anywhere else has information that would show violations, we will move on them and act on them immediately. I give you my promise on that.
Conservative
Dan Muys Conservative Flamborough—Glanbrook—Brant North, ON
It sounds like there are going to be some documents forthcoming to you to look at. Would you commit to making the results of those internal investigations public, in the interest of transparency?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
Yes, we will follow up on them accordingly.
Conservative
Dan Muys Conservative Flamborough—Glanbrook—Brant North, ON
You've talked about the rigorous, robust and transparent system that's in place. With what's coming out of this meeting here today and the discussion, what next steps would you commit to doing to re-evaluate that system and make enhancements to that system?
There seem to be some gaps.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
From our perspective, as we've discussed, we feel like our process is very robust and very strong. In fact, we think we're an example to other Canadian companies. We are a Crown. We have to abide to much higher standards than other companies. I'm not commenting on them, but we have a responsibility. Again, safety is our number one priority within our company. We're very proud of that.
I fully support this committee and the government, and applaud them for moving forward on looking for changes around CRA and labour sharing of data and penalties. We would, of course, fully implement those programs and fully endorse them based on the recommendations of this committee. We see no place for Driver Inc. in Canada, period.
Conservative
Dan Muys Conservative Flamborough—Glanbrook—Brant North, ON
You indicated that the right to audit is important to you. It's important, certainly, to all Canadians. I think you mentioned it, but I don't recall the number, so how many audits have been done in the past year? How many audits were done in previous years?
Is there a need to ramp that up?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
I'll kick it off and maybe Alex can jump in with a little bit more.
In 2025, we did just under 1,500 audits of different carriers. We took action on 650 of them—small actions and larger actions.
Conservative
Dan Muys Conservative Flamborough—Glanbrook—Brant North, ON
Are those audits specific to the Driver Inc. model?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
No, there's no Driver Inc. model to be reviewed.
This is for all of the contractors we have. I think we have something like 320 contractors in our system.
Conservative
Dan Muys Conservative Flamborough—Glanbrook—Brant North, ON
There were no audits specific to Driver Inc.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Post Corporation
No, because as I said there are none we're aware of in our system.
Conservative
Dan Muys Conservative Flamborough—Glanbrook—Brant North, ON
Is that something you can commit to doing now, retrospectively, after this committee? Can you go back and take a look at whether there were specific—