Mr. Speaker, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to this private member's motion this morning.
As we know, the role of Canada Post will be reviewed by a committee recently set up by the minister; my remarks are therefore subject to this committee's proceedings and subsequent report.
If I understand correctly, today's motion calls for privatizing Canada Post. In principle, since this is a private member's motion, I will speak first on my own behalf and not on behalf of the Bloc. Of course, I myself am not opposed in principle to privatizing government controlled businesses. In principle, one should not be against this. Even the present federal government cannot come out against any kind of privatization, since it has just privatized CN. It is easy to see that this privatization may eliminate some rural services and that this is not necessarily a good thing for people across Canada.
But they may have done the right thing by privatizing CN, especially because of the competition with CP. As for Canada Post, it is indeed a monopoly, which raises questions on the risks of privatizing such a large monopoly.
We already know about the numerous problems with Canada Post. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has exposed many cases of waste and inefficiency, accusing Canada Post of misusing its money and running considerable deficits from one year to the next because of this. There have also been complaints from private firms, including courier service and mail advertising companies, which deliver information packages from door to door.
I have reviewed this matter quite thoroughly, since industry representatives have complained to me personally that Canada Post unfairly competes with private sector companies. This is something of an outrage because, if I understand correctly, Canada Post can make a profit from its monopoly in first class mail delivery by charging 48 cents for every stamp. If we look only at the revenue from stamp sales and first class mail delivery, Canada Post makes a profit, but uses it to compete with businesses such as home delivery, courier service and mail advertising firms.
This is unfair and I am totally opposed to this kind of competition from the government, whether we are dealing with the postal service or the engineering sector. Canada Post comes under the responsibility of the public works minister, and we will soon have an opportunity, perhaps even this afternoon, to debate Bill C-52, which testifies once again to the government's tendency to compete unfairly with the private sector.
For a government that wants to encourage private enterprise and put in place legislation to promote job creation, this is totally unacceptable. In the case of Canada Post, this is blatant. It is inevitable. Last year, Canada Post's deficit was approximately $70 million, if I am not mistaken, and, before that, I think it was $280 million. But these deficits can be attributed, to some extent, to the fact that Canada Post is spending money it makes as a monopoly to compete with the private sector for courier services and direct mail advertising.
Canada Post's services are not competitive. It is in fact digging in the public purse, because, as a crown corporation, Canada Post belongs to all of us. It belongs to all Canadians and uses its revenues from mail delivery to compete with the private sector. It is obviously unacceptable and, at the very least, Canada Post's should be reviewed to ensure that, if Canada Post maintains its monopoly on first class mail delivery, it should not compete with the private sector, at least not any more.
That is for sure.
But I am not sure how effective it would be to privatize Canada Post and limit, say, its role to first class mail delivery. I wonder because, as I said earlier, Canada Post only turns a profit on first class mail delivery. So, why do that if the service is there and is adequate, or at least cost effective, although there may still be room for improvement within the organization. As I said earlier, according to labour, postal workers, inside staff and others, service delivery could be improved, but there does not seem to be any net benefit in privatizing Canada Post.
But again, it all depends on how Canada Post's mandate review will be conducted. Perhaps, over the next few months, moving away from a monopoly, service delivery could be broadened, in the sense that several private companies could provide the service.
However, there are many instances where, when we try too hard to liberalize certain sectors, ordinary people end up footing the bill. For example, the government's decision to end Bell Canada's monopoly resulted in a significant increase in the costs of telephone services. The same thing also happened in the transport sector and in several other ones.
Sometimes, the liberalization process is taken too far and is detrimental to public interest. Since consumers have to pay more, we must ask ourselves this question: If we privatize Canada Post so that a number of companies can offer services currently provided exclusively by the corporation, does it mean that, instead of paying 48 cents for the delivery of a first class letter, consumers
will have to shell out 75 cents? If this is the case, I do not see how such a change would be beneficial. It would create an excess in the other way.
So far, the government has not used adequate judgment to restrict the mandate of Canada Post and ensure that the corporation does not compete unfairly with private businesses in the delivery of mailings, or even as regards courier services. This an abuse of power and an aberration. It is unacceptable. It may even be immoral. However, it would be just as bad to go to the other extreme, liberalize all the services provided by Canada Post, and trigger a substantial cost increase in the delivery of a first class letter for ordinary Canadians. That could be an excess of another kind.
As a matter of principle, we cannot oppose the privatization of crown corporations. The government has already shown that it was open to privatization. However, a balance must be sought regarding the mandate of Canada Post. Hopefully, once that mandate is reviewed by the minister's committee, balanced recommendations can be made and take into account the interests of all Canadians.