Madam Speaker, I know there is not a lot of time left to debate this private member's bill but clearly Canada Post has to take a serious look at improving conditions for rural mail couriers.
There are two different sets of rules in Canada Post: carriers who deliver mail in the city and the rural mail deliverers. Most of them are working at minimum wage to deliver mail in rural Canada. Whether it is through the mechanism that the member is talking about or something else, we have to redefine the relationship with Canada Post in terms of how it negotiates with these people who have a very important job in our society. I feel they have been mistreated for a number of years by Canada Post.
Why do people in rural Canada have to deliver mail at minimum wage, use their own automobiles and compete neighbour against neighbour on a contract which they have had for years when the city mail carriers, those in the union, do not and do not work by the same set of rules?
Something has to change. We, as parliamentarians, have to make it very clear to Canada Post that it has to negotiate with these rural couriers in good faith. Everyone of these people, no matter whether it is in my home province of New Brunswick or British Columbia, are working under the same set of rules. Basically there are no rules. Canada Post makes them up as it goes along, much to the detriment of the very people who are delivering the mail in rural Canada.
To make matters worse, they now have to take on two or three mail routes by themselves in one particular area simply to make ends meet and make it profitable. It means that many Canadians are having their mail delivered later or not at all simply because we are forcing rural mail couriers to do more with less.
It is time that we took a serious look at how Canada Post negotiates with these people, because it is patently unfair. There is no other group in society that we would allow to be treated in such a fashion, given the importance of the job they do. I commend the member for Winnipeg Centre for bringing forward this bill.
Many of us would disagree as to whether it should be a union or something else, but I think that most of us would agree that something definitely has to happen.
Alice Boudreau represents the Organization of Rural Route Mail Couriers. She has visited just about every rural member of parliament on both sides of the House. She represents drivers from all across Canada. When she appeared before us and laid out the situation which she and other drivers are faced with, we could not help but feel sorry for these people.
I am not saying this in a derogatory or demeaning way, but if we look at the rural couriers, most of them are not driving new cars. They are not living in million dollar houses. The fact is that most of them, after all of their expenses, are working at minimum wage. I have to explain the term minimum wage because obviously they bid for a contract. They bid for the right to deliver mail. They bid against other people in society. In the real world there is nothing wrong with that. Each one of us bids for a position in the House. We put our reputations and our careers on the line. At the end of the day the constituents determine whether it will be me or someone else representing them in the House of Commons. That is true for every member of parliament.
However, it is unfair for rural postal drivers because Canada Post, as I have mentioned before, does not negotiate in good faith. It will take a look at the bids that come in and then go back to the rural drivers carrying the mail and tell them that someone has submitted a lower bid. Canada Post says “We want to let you know that there is a bid which is lower than yours”. Individuals who have been carrying the mail for years are forced to underbid themselves simply to get their jobs back.
Can hon. members name one organization in the free world that negotiates in that fashion? That is what Canada Post does. That is what is driving rural mail contractors to say they need some kind of protection.
The member who presented the bill says that we will have to take a look at a union of sorts. I do not think a union is the key to solving the problem.