Government Operations committee  Thank you.

Government Operations committee  It was noted by our policy committee in reviewing the task force report that privatization was not on the radar. To speak to your question about enhanced service and the fee for enhanced service, which is essentially what you're saying, I think our membership in the business community would be supportive of that.

Government Operations committee  Contrast.

Government Operations committee  Yes, it is a challenge, and I think it speaks to the weight that the business community puts on Canada Post and its importance to all Canadians. To your point about short-term subsidization, I think our observation in the report is that there are short-term, immediate concerns around the obligations to the pension plan, and then there are some long-term, serious concerns that we need a real-time solution for, as this is a process—

Government Operations committee  In the short term, how do we—

Government Operations committee  I haven't seen the price of stamps go back down. That's the only concern.

Government Operations committee  We, being a chamber attached to the national network of chambers, work with both Purolator and UPS. We do offer benefits to our members through that network.

Government Operations committee  No.

Government Operations committee  I think the reaction from the business community, when you're having challenges with cash flow, as any SME has probably faced in its various life cycles, is to do just what Canada Post's task force is doing in this process, and that is to look at opportunities to increase revenue or reduce expenses.

Government Operations committee  Right.

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  We haven't had any significant negative feedback about the community mailboxes from the business community's perspective, primarily because a lot of the urban deliveries would be.... They wouldn't have seen a lot changed; they probably go to their post office. I haven't had a lot of feedback there.

Government Operations committee  I can step in here. The observation from our committee, and in speaking to members, is that increased costs for using Canada Post is something they would want to be evaluated very carefully. As was noted, we're dealing with small businesses, and their profit/loss margins are very minimal.

Government Operations committee  Yes. It was going to be a combination of courier services, staff, and other volunteers to distribute that.

Government Operations committee  Earlier this summer we potentially faced this situation. We distribute a quarterly magazine. It's treated as letter mail. We were preparing an emergency response as to how we were going to push that out. We were actually looking at a delivery model that was very human resource-heavy.