Mr. Speaker, I find it most frustrating and disturbing to watch Conservative after Conservative get up today to try to rationalize or justify these cuts that are going to hurt the services that many Canadians have relied upon for generations and make us become the only developed country in the world not to have door-to-door service. This is the legacy of Conservatives.
Let us talk about the sustainability of a corporation that has been profitable for 17 of the last 18 years and over that time has turned a net profit back to the Canadian taxpayer of $1.7 billion. What is unsustainable about this corporation, exactly?
As well, the Conference Board study that the Conservatives keep repeating is out by $300 million in its first year of estimates as to what was going to happen. Oh, by the way, who was the Conference Board contracted by to do this study? Canada Post. Whose CEO sits on the board of the Conference Board of Canada? There are conflicts of interest all over the place.
What is not a conflict of interest is that Canadians have to rely upon the service. Of course mail delivery is down, but parcel delivery has more than picked up the pace.
Changes need to be made to Canada Post. Let us innovate. Let us make the changes that would allow Canadians to have the services they need right across the country, rather than have these draconian measures that the Conservative government supports.
The worry we have is that this sets up Canada Post into a Conservative ideology, a Conservative movement that would allow for its privatization. There has been no assurance from government today. It is not that we would much believe a Conservative promise on privatization, but there has been no assurance that Canada Post is not being made ready to sell by a government that has only been interested in lowering expectations and lowering services to Canadians time and time again.