Mr. Speaker, I rise to correct my colleague who sits with me on the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities. That is not what the committee recommended. The committee wrote a unanimous report asking Canada Post to defer its litigation until the committee had really studied the situation. That was the motion the committee passed unanimously.
The government has tabled a bill and maybe my colleague is in favour of it. There is a problem though: the committee asked the government for a chance, before the bill is tabled, to analyze the situation, have all the witnesses testify, and find out how many jobs are at stake.
The hon. member was talking about small businesses, but Canada Post talks about big corporations. Personally, I have met remailers who say they employ thousands of people.
I would like to know what the situation actually is in this industry. I also do not want the remailers to cannibalize Canada Post. As we know, Canada Post distributes its wealth in such a way that rural areas have equitable service. If Canada Post’s revenues were ever to decline too much, rural areas could be adversely affected, as they are right now. My Liberal colleague forgets this all too often. By the time Canada Post finishes its safety study, 30% of people will no longer have home delivery.
Could they not have suggested equipping the people who deliver mail in rural areas with small, more suitable trucks, as in the United States, in order to satisfy everyone? No, they decided instead that Canada Post is being deprived of income, before doing a study of the situation.
This is what I blame the Conservative government and my colleague for. Once more, they draw hasty conclusions without doing a real study. The committee’s purpose was to prevent Canada Post from proceeding with litigation that it could shut down. The Bloc Québécois agreed to this. However, we want a real study done before a bill is passed.
What is happing now is that the Conservatives have decided, with the support of the Liberals, that the businesses are right. This means in the end that some rural residents may well lose their delivery service because Canada Post has less income.
I hope my colleague realizes this. That is what I want to ask him. Does he realize that this change to Canada Post could affect rural mail service? He does not seem to realize it when I listen to him, but Canada Post is—