I have full respect for the House, Mr. Speaker.
I want to talk about the issue of mailings. That is what we are talking about.
In my riding we have been getting mailings not just from the Liberals but also from the NDP. The NDP is sending them into my riding. They are short pieces. That is their right to do so. I understand. I do not agree with this one I received, but those are the rules of the House. The House has ruled many times that we are permitted to do this, but the NDP is sending this into my riding. If anyone requests me to, I will table these documents. I would be happy to do so. Unanimous consent would be required because these mailings were sent out in only one official language, but I cannot help that.
The one I have here is from the member for Toronto—Danforth. It went to somebody in Victoria by franked mail. Franked mail has a cost tenfold that of unaddressed mail. It is first class postage.
I will give them credit because at least it is unaddressed mail. The NDP is getting their message out within the rules of the House but at least it is not using addressed mail. The NDP members could, as it is their right. I accept that. I do not agree with it. I do not think we should waste the taxpayers' dollars, but there is more. These others that I have here went into my riding as well. They have the word Liberal on them. They were sent by the member for Richmond, but again, by franked mail. That costs 10 times more than actually using 10 percenters. I appreciate that this one is a householder, but I think it is all relevant to the issue we are talking about.
The member for North Vancouver blanketed my riding. I know that is within members' rights. They are allowed to do that. I do not agree with it and it is an issue that has come up before, but it is within the rules. Again, this one uses first class postage, costing the taxpayers at least 50¢ a hit for every single one of these because addressed mail is used. I have more. I have one here from the member for Vancouver Centre. This is all factual.
I send out a 10 percenter. We all send out 10 percenters. I believe the member for Ajax--Pickering raised a question of privilege about this same issue. Do members recall what he was upset about? He thought it was my fault, but Canada Post actually put my 10 percenter inside his householder. I can understand his frustration, but it had nothing to do with me. Canada Post did it.
Again, these are privileges that the House affords to all members in order for us to communicate not only with our constituents but with Canadians right across the country.
Mr. Speaker, you are very aware of that. You have been on the Board of Internal Economy for many years and are highly respected in the House. I know that you have had to address this issue. The House itself, through the Board of Internal Economy, which is an extension of the House, has chosen not to change those rules.
I think we should be restricted to 10 percenters and householders. It is a little more work for us because we have to identify the postal codes they are going to, but at least the cost to taxpayers would be probably one-tenth that of addressed mail.
If I were to use addressed mail like the Liberal and NDP members I have mentioned, I would just have to take a CD down to printing services and give them one copy. They will photocopy it, address the envelopes, stuff them for me and send them out. That is pretty easy. I do not have to go through all the work of setting up postal codes, which is a lot more work for my staff.
But that is what we choose to do because it saves taxpayers a lot of money. It is our privilege as a member of the House. If members opposite want to stop the use of franked mail outside their ridings, I would be the first to endorse that because I do not think that practice is necessary. For individual correspondence, yes, and everybody accepts that. I am talking about blanket mailings into ridings, where 50,000 mailings are sent out with a number of members' franks. It is extraordinarily expensive and extraordinarily costly for taxpayers. This comes down to having respect for the public purse.
Let us come back to the householder in question. I have had a few people go over it. It is clearly factually correct. There is nothing in it that is not accurate. In fact, it is even footnoted. Members opposite can see where all the sources are. In my view, this is probably the single most important piece that every Canadian in every corner of this country could read.