Mr. Speaker, many Saanich-Gulf Islands constituents complain about Canada Post's service. Despite rate increases, mail delivery is notoriously unreliable. Personal mail boxes have been replaced with centralized superboxes. Service, rather than improving, is deteriorating.
By legislating that anyone who delivers letter mail must charge three times what Canada Post charges, government has created a monopoly operation and, typical of such enterprises, an inefficient one. Furthermore, using its financial advantage on letter mail to cross-subsidize, Canada Post can sell junk mail delivery at a loss, thus prohibiting effective competition from other agencies.
Because there is no alternative mail delivery system, Canada Post has no fear of dissatisfied customers. The advent of facsimiles and E-mail gives some Canadians an option but many Canadians have no access to these alternatives. What is missing and vitally needed is fair competition. Government should remove the Canada Post competitive price advantage and let the free market set prices and standards.