Mr. Speaker, at a community forum held last week in Greenwood, I was approached by Ms. Pat McGee, president of the Grand Forks Canadian Union of Postal Workers, where she outlined some pretty disturbing news.
A recent decision was made to delete a full time clerk position in the Grand Forks post office, which has resulted in large lineups. The citizens in rural parts of my riding need to know that they have access to quality services, not a systematic dismantling of a core service. It appears that post offices across Canada are being dismantled one employee at a time.
According to Ms. McGee, big business is lobbying fiercely for privatization of our postal services. We must not let this happen. Privatization means higher postal rates, uneven service standards and quality, fragmentation of our delivery network and possibly a decrease in mail security.
This is a bad move for everyone. We need not look any further than our own B.C. communities to see how bad privatization really is. Highways are not being looked after and public health care and the environment are under attack.
The public service is already understaffed and privatizing post offices is a step backward for our community.