Yes, we can name them. We are in committee of the whole, Mr. St-Julien. I can name you.
He said he had visited the strikers and told them he understood their problems. He said “I looked at their collective agreement. They are paid well enough, I think. They have good wages, good conditions. We can give them a little stab in the back by voting with the minister on cutting back the conditions offered by Canada Post”. I have trouble understanding hon. members such as Mr. St-Julien, Mr. Coderre and Mr. Charbonneau, who claim to be sensitive to public concerns.
This $24 million that had already been gained by the postal employees is being taken away. This is money that will not end up in our ridings, and in your ridings, because that is where postal employees and mail carriers spend their pay, in their region. So this is money being taken away from all of the regions of Canada, which they prefer to leave in the accumulated funds of Canada Post, which as I said earlier makes a profit of over $125 million. This petty amount of $20 million will do nothing for it. The corporation is already profitable, and its role is not to make money but to get the mail delivered properly, while respecting the men and women who work for the corporation and assuming that responsibility.
I am appealing, therefore, not to the generosity of all hon. members, but rather to their common sense, in voting in favour of the amendment on which my hon. NDP colleague has spoken, as well as my hon. colleague for Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup—Témiscouata—Les Basques, who spoke on the first. These two amendments are very much complementary and would result in the offer that has already been made to the postal employees and letter carriers during the negotiations being made the minimum in the bill. As I said, never in 13 years have I seen a bill that was going to be tabled to force a return to work which contained less than what the negotiations had partially arrived at. I am therefore appealing to the common sense of all hon. members in this House that they may understand this situation and back the amendment moved by the Bloc Quebecois and the New Democratic Party.