Mr. Speaker, as I already pointed out in my initial words, no permanent employees will lose their job. This commitment is possible because Canada Post will easily be able to reassign its employees affected by the transfer to other locations in Quebec, since some 300 of its 1,400 permanent employees will take a well deserved retirement of their own free will.
The vast majority of retiring employees are postal clerks and letter carriers and Canada Post is providing them with a good retirement, consistent with their collective agreement. In fact, if we consider that a clerk earns $45,000 a year on average, not including overtime and premiums, and that a pension represents 70% of this salary, the retiree will be at home with a good pension of $32,000 a year, also fully indexed.
In Quebec, Canada Post will continue to invest in the community and will remain a large employer as it maintains 1,100 jobs and economic benefits of $90 million.