Government Operations committee  Within that context, all federal departments and agencies are looking to see what they can do to help advance housing. In that context, we have been having conversations with Canada Post to see whether there may be opportunities in some of their portfolio and whether that could be leveraged for housing, recognizing, of course, that Canada Post is an operational organization in nature.

Government Operations committee  Thank you. You also mentioned the act under which Canada Post operates and the mandate to provide postal services to all Canadians in a secure and financially self-sustaining manner. One of the representatives from Canada Post made the observation that oftentimes the need to provide a secure and quality postal service is hard to do when they have to remain within their means.

Government Operations committee  Certainly compensation restrictions pose conflicts for Canada Post. There are a number of things you're doing, and I appreciate some of those transformations that are ongoing. One of them is developing a long-term plan to optimize the real estate portfolio to enable us to lower operating costs.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Brisson, in your opening remarks, you described Canada Post as a lifeline for rural and remote communities. I wholeheartedly agree with your characterization of the important work of Canada Post. I want to talk a bit about the impacts of climate change on that lifeline for rural and remote communities.

Government Operations committee  When you think about strategy and the long-term repositioning of Canada Post, we've got to look at the Canada Post Group of Companies and be clear on what synergies exist within the group so we can actually better serve our customers and Canadians. From that standpoint, SCI, being a warehousing 3PL company, was not one of those building blocks, so it made sense from a management standpoint to look at what we had and to refocus Canada Post on its logistics activities to serve Canadians.

Government Operations committee  Canada Post chose to outsource its IT operation to reduce costs. Has this outsourcing been effective in reducing the operating costs?

Government Operations committee  First, on the financial side, you will see the transaction in our own financial statements. You're going to have access to these numbers. They are part of the Canada Post Group of Companies. It's very important that we're able to stay focused on our strategy. It's a question of looking at the Canada Post Group of Companies and actually creating synergies in that Canada Post Group of Companies.

Government Operations committee  Small businesses, particularly depending on where they're located, may have options available to them in shipping, and particularly business-to-business shipping, but in some instances, they may be relying on Canada Post. Obviously, having access to Canada Post to be able to move their goods and services.... We heard some examples earlier of how that might not have been working as intended in the past.

Government Operations committee  Again, as we indicated, we do work with Canada Post and we do flag to it every time we become aware of a situation of a rural post office or location being at risk, keeping in mind that the Crown corporation is independent and is responsible for managing its operations and that the board of directors ultimately undertakes the review and ensures compliance with all of these obligations of Canada Post management.

Government Operations committee  Canada Post is one of those organizations, but it's not the only one. We do everything within our means to identify ideas and solutions.

Government Operations committee  First, with regard to your direct question of whether we're seeing the flow go the other way from the contracted-out model, I don't have the answer to that question. As I indicated, Canada Post, as an independent Crown corporation, manages its own operations. I would say that in a lot of instances, there are.... Recognizing that the situation you described in Dease Lake is going to be very different from a lot of other franchise locations in other instances, there are times where Canada Post will set up a franchise location—somebody mentioned a Walmart or a Shoppers Drug Mart—at one of those retail locations.

Government Operations committee  The Crown corporation is responsible for managing its day-to-day operations, of course. Furthermore, Canada Post is not subject to most of the Treasury Board's policies on procurement, since Crown corporations are treated differently under the law. That means Canada Post has independence when it comes to procurement, and we have no involvement at all in that aspect.

Government Operations committee  To be very clear, has the minister ever, in the letter of expectation, expressed to Canada Post any concern about the closure of rural post offices—this loss of 600 post offices—and said, “As minister, I want Canada Post to do things differently to reverse this trend of losing post offices”?

Government Operations committee  The review was initiated this past year and is ongoing. As you may have picked up from the answers given by our Canada Post colleagues, the charter hasn't changed since 2009. The principles set out in the charter and the services Canada Post must provide to Canadians are relatively stable.

Government Operations committee  According to the transition binder of the Minister of Public Services and Procurement, again, the department is working closely with Canada Post “to examine opportunities to improve the financial sustainability of its important operations.” What actions is the department considering to improve Canada Post's financial sustainability?