Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to this bill, which I am interested in because I am my party's postal service and public works critic.
I listened very closely to the remarks of the member who introduced this private bill. I also listened with great interest to the remarks of the government member on the Standing Committee on Public Works and Government Services.
Members on the other side of the House are naturally in favour of any government initiative. I recall that, not that long ago—in the spring, I think, or last fall—our committee considered the renegotiation of the contracts for the small postal outlets that have sprung up everywhere, in drug stores, shopping centres or other small businesses.
When Canada Post Corporation launched this idea, it was hoping to reduce its operating costs, generate additional profits and provide work for the operators of postal outlets, but at the lowest possible cost, so as to generate additional profits, because otherwise Canada Post Corporation would have run these postal outlets itself.
Unfortunately for Canada Post Corporation, and fortunately for the operators of these small postal outlets, the profits generated were higher than those initially estimated by the corporation.
When the contracts came to an end, the Canada Post Corporation negotiated mercilessly with people, putting a gun to their heads and saying “Take it or leave it. Sign here.” and their commissions were cut. This is the cavalier behaviour of the Canada Post Corporation.
Things are no different with rural mail delivery. As the member said, a person buys a small car or truck to deliver mail in the area. They collect their mail in the morning at the central post office; if the person sorting the mail is sick and could not sort the mail the day before, the independent mail delivery person will do it. In winter snow storms, this is the person who takes out his shovel and clears the snow in order to get to people's mailboxes. It is wrong, as the party in power is claiming, to say that these people are independent.
And to hide all the time behind legalistic reasoning like that cited by the representative of the party in power is sad and unfortunate, I find. These people are working for less than the minimum wage in their respective regions, it is a fact. This is abusing people.
I think the charter of rights and freedoms so often cited here in Canada establishes the freedom of association. Freedom of association is the rule. There must be as few exclusions and exceptions to the rule as possible.
But every time the government is involved directly, through a crown corporation or in any way in confrontation with groups that may make a claim, such as the RCMP or the letter carriers at the moment, the people delivering rural mail, it wastes no time breaking the rule of freedom of association.
It thumbs its nose at its own charter in prohibiting collective bargaining just so that the Canada Post Corporation can pay it another $200 million annually in net benefits that it gives back to the government, which claims the corporation owes it money from back when it was not breaking even.
The government did invest money. Now it wants to recover that money but, true to its ways, the government will not take it off the earnings of its senior officials, or that of CPC chairman André Ouellet or his directors and deputy directors, but from those as the lower end of the pay scale, who walk in the snow to deliver parcels and letters to mailboxes. The government is making them pay for the mismanagement that occurred in previous years.
I cannot accept that. It is one thing to be partisan, to do one's utmost to support one's party—and the member opposite is doing a good job at that—but one must still have some moral principles. Regardless of our political allegiance, when people are forced to slave away for less than minimum wage, partisanship is no longer acceptable. This issue has to do with dignity, and we must allow these people to preserve their dignity.
I was floored to hear the Reform Party member, whom I respect, say “We will break the contractual relationship that exists between Canada Post and contract employees'.? That relationship was prescribed by the act. They did not choose it, they did not want it. It was imposed on them by the act.
Today, those who deliver our mail are asking us to help them. I think we have a duty to do so. It would be too simple, as a governing party or a political party, to stay away from society's problems, to not face these problems, to hide behind the rulings of the Federal Court of Appeal or of any other court.
I think the government is missing a prime opportunity to give some dignity back to these contractors who no longer want to remain independent.
I have taken part in such negotiations. Someone will buy a small vehicle in order to get a contract. When the contract is about to expire, the local or regional postmaster says “You know, you have some competition. A few people have called us this year”. That person is still making payments on the vehicle and the contract is coming to an end. If that person does not get the next contract, he or she may get stuck with the truck or car still being paid for. So that person is told to make a reasonable bid.
Year after year, contract after contract, this poor person has to submit lower and lower bids. Such behaviour is unworthy of a representative of the Canada Post Corporation, which claims to be so honest and great. Wanting to make a profit on the backs of poor workers is despicable.
Personally, I will wholeheartedly support, as my party will, the bill introduced by the hon. member. I urge the members opposite to show some mercy, to rise above party politics and to try to imagine what it is like to work hard and still have trouble earning a living. Not everyone earns as much as federal ministers do and gets to travel anywhere in the world whenever he or she feels like it. There are people who are hurting in their ridings.
The Reform Party suggests that the existing contracts be cancelled. This is total nonsense. I remember that the members of the Reform Party opposed a measure limiting to three months of interest the penalty imposed by the lender when someone wants to renegotiate or pay off his or her mortgage before it was up.
They opposed it as though all Western farmers who owed money on machinery, land or farms were so rich that they did not care about paying the big penalties imposed on them when they wanted to renegotiate or pay off mortgages or loans before they were up. Only the Reform Party could oppose such a measure. As if all Western farmers were millionaires.
Then they turn around and describe the hardship suffered by Western farmers, saying how sad it is when grain prices drop. However, when the time came to help the farmers through modest private members' bills like that one, Reform was always the first to oppose them.
I say to the hon. member who introduced the bill that he can count on my support and on the support of my party. I hope that, at some point, the people across will see the light and understand that they cannot act as if their party were the only one on the face of the earth.