Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise to speak today on Motion No. 312 tabled by the member for Yellowhead which states:
That, in the opinion of this House, the government should immediately take the required measures to privatize all operations and services of the Canada Post Corporation.
The finance minister stated in the last budget speech: "Our view is straightforward. If the government doesn't need to run something it shouldn't and in the future it won't".
Motion No. 312 allows the government the opportunity to make good on this straightforward point of view. When it comes right down to analysing where the government should be involved, Canada Post does not rank as a priority.
This is an organization that in the view of Professor Robert Campbell of Trent University has been "given a considerable amount of space in which to function like a private commercial operation and has acted very much like a private sector corporation". Canada Post has therefore illustrated that it is capable of providing its existing services as a private sector corporation.
Traditionally the main argument against the privatization of Canada Post is that people see it as the communications link for rural areas. This claim is now false. If Canada Post is so committed to rural service, why has it either closed or amalgamated 1,700 of its rural post offices? The simple answer to the question is that Canada Post is behaving like a private corporation. If it were privatized and industry as a whole were permitted more market freedom, people in rural areas would have greater access to more and more delivery companies. Many companies would jump at the opportunity to provide full postal services in rural areas.
Another weak argument offered against privatization is that Canada Post does not receive any federal money for its operations. This claim has an element of truth in it. Every year Canada Post aims to balance its books and it has been successful in three of the last five years in doing so. However the two years that losses were recorded added up to just under $400 million in losses and these losses were absorbed by the taxpayers.
I find the idea of privatizing Canada Post a compelling one. Canadians should no longer be asked to bear the burden of subsidizing an organization that could operate just as effectively or more efficiently if it were in the private sector. Best of all, if this were the case, taxpayers would not be shouldering the costs when Canada Post records financial losses. These financial losses continue despite the fact that Canada Post has invested enormously in becoming more efficient and more diverse.
I was surprised when I learned that Canada Post owns 75 per cent of the courier company Purolator. I was even more surprised when I read repeated claims by competitors in the courier industry about Canada Post. The competitors claim that Canada Post is using revenue generated from ordinary mail to subsidize its courier company. It is claimed that this allows Purolator Courier to offer rates that are lower than private sector rates and gives the Canada Post-Purolator team an unfair advantage.
The president of the Canadian Courier Association recently claimed: "There is not a courier in the world who would offer that kind of service at that price. Who is paying for that cost? You are if you bought a stamp".
Canada Post's competitors claim that if Canada Post is to have an unfair advantage then its entire financial record should be made public. This would mean that Canada Post should present not only its budgetary figures but also how much money is being transferred to Purolator? I find the request to be entirely reasonable. If taxpayers are subsidizing Purolator they have a right to know the exact nature of the financial arrangement these two companies share.
Canada Post is an enigma, especially to the corporate world. On one hand it operates as a crown corporation with a mandate to provide universal postal service to all Canadians. On the other hand it operates as a ruthless competitor expanding into the courier industry while possessing a legislative monopoly on first class mail. In other words Canada Post enjoys all the benefits and security of a crown corporation with government protection and government backing while it conducts itself as though it were a private sector organization.
Canada Post should no longer enjoy this advantage. It should have it one way or the other. A spokesman for the United Parcel Service, UPS, recently said: "We are not seeking the abolishment of the post office. Our goal is that the playing field should be levelled".
Another area that competitors claim is not on a level playing field is the business of delivering unaddressed mail, advertising flyers or junk mail. When Canada Post created its so-called ad mail program to distribute third class mail, it knocked many small distributors right out of the industry. The ones that are left face an unfair advantage.
By Canada Post's own estimates, the number of delivered flyers jumped from 1.8 billion pieces in 1987 to 4.4 billion in 1994. This represents an increase of 144 per cent. This would not be all bad except Canada Post only reported a 63 per cent increase in revenue from this service.
Ottawa Citizen columnist Peter Hadekel recently commented: ``Canada's Post's own numbers show that its cost per thousand flyers delivered fell 33 per cent, a clear indication it has been cutting prices to build volume''. Once again Canada Post is using this diversity within the protection of a crown corporation to create a monopoly in another area. Taxpayers have the right to know how the financial structure of Canada Post works and how it is using this advantage unfairly.
Despite the closure of over 1,000 rural area post offices Canada Post is the largest franchise chain in Canada. It is the 28th largest corporation in the nation. It has the potential to grow even stronger. Canada Post would have no problem finding investors and would, if privatized, be able to provide the same service it does now, and perhaps more efficiently in the competition of the open market.
In many ways Canada Post already operates as a private organization. It rented a $200,000 private sky box in Toronto's SkyDome. It may be an acceptable practice in the corporate world, but during a time when the government is trying to reduce expenditures and debt it is absolutely unreasonable for a crown corporation. I do not feel comfortable telling the people of my riding of Cariboo-Chilcotin that we must make sacrifices to reduce the debt while Canada Post executives have this kind of government guaranteed luxury at all Blue Jay games.
If privatized Canada Post would do fine on its own and Canadians would still enjoy good postal service by whoever provides it.
Next August Parliament will see the results of a major review that has recently been ordered. It is my hope that it will not be just a cosmetic review to appease the concerns of Canada Post competitors. The editor of the St. Albert Gazette near Edmonton recently stated: ``Are they going to be able to dig into Canada Post's affairs or will they be stonewalled like everyone else before them? Canada Post likes to keep business to itself''.
The time has come for Parliament to recognize that Canada Post can do well as a private corporation and that it needs a more level playing field in the postal industry for the benefit of all Canadians. As I have said, Canada Post likes to keep business to itself. As a private corporation Canada Post can still freely keep to itself but only if it can beat the competition.
I ask members to support the motion and to realize this is a start in the most logical direction.