Human Resources committee  Can I respond to the question about balance?

Human Resources committee  Thank you. I'm Deborah Bourque. I'm the national president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. On behalf of our 54,000 members, I want to thank you for the opportunity to present our views on Bill C-257. For your information, the majority of our members work at Canada Post.

Government Operations committee  I don't know. I would assume that those discussions had taken place. I can't say specifically that every rural route mail courier who invoked their right to refuse had taken those steps, but these folks know the work they do, and they know their communities.

Government Operations committee  Sorry. Geoff, did you have something to add to that?

Government Operations committee  I would suspect that's the way the route has been structured. Some routes are structured such that you deliver to mailboxes in the box lobby. Some routes are structured such that you deliver door to door in the apartment building or the business building. I can't imagine that we would have the right to refuse to deliver in those cases.

Government Operations committee  We have a role to play in that we are permitted to have observers when routes are restructured. We have the right under the collective agreement to review the information, but it's ultimately the route measurement officer from Canada Post who does the actual building of the walk.

Government Operations committee  If I have one message to leave you, it's that we're absolutely committed to that.

Government Operations committee  I think a good example of this is United Parcel Service's complaint under the North American Free Trade Agreement. If they win, or if the Canadian government settles the case before the tribunal, then what will likely happen is that UPS will have access to Canada Post's infrastructure and the urban markets.

Government Operations committee  Well, yes. We would hate to see Canada Post go back to the days when it was a drain on the public purse. And it hasn't been. Canada Post has had 11 consecutive years of profits. So yes, Canada Post would have to find the revenues somewhere to continue to provide universal service, or it would have to pull back.

Government Operations committee  I'm not convinced that there wasn't a problem previously. These routes didn't become unsafe overnight. There were problems in the past. The problem is people were afraid to raise their complaints because their contracts could be terminated without cause. They weren't covered by the just cause provisions of the Canada Labour Code.

Government Operations committee  A number of our members, not all of them, in the urban operations bargaining unit deliver mail in right-hand-drive vehicles.

Government Operations committee  No. Our rural members are required to provide their own vehicles; it's a holdover from when they were independent contractors.

Government Operations committee  Yes, there used to be a formula: any community of 2,000 or more points of call automatically got door-to-door delivery. Unfortunately, that fell by the wayside about 10 or 15 years ago when Canada Post started putting community mailboxes or supermailboxes, as they called them back then, into all new developments.

Government Operations committee  I guess so, unless this committee wants to recommend some kind of formula for door-to-door delivery, and we could certainly work with you on that. But I guess your option is to complain to Canada Post and mobilize the community. If the community mobilizes itself and puts pressure on Canada Post, it may be able to achieve door-to-door delivery.

Government Operations committee  Labour Canada doesn't rule on comfort issues; Labour Canada rules on whether or not the worker is unsafe.