Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, I will move on to rail safety and the tragedy in Lac-Mégantic. I would like the minister to tell us how much the municipality of Lac-Mégantic had to pay to clean up its downtown, since insurance could not pay and the rail company refused to do so.

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, how many Canadians do not have a bank account?

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, 900,000 Canadians do not have bank accounts. Canada Post has 6,400 postal outlets. These people would be able to get banking services rather than cashing their cheques at Insta-Cheques, which takes a large portion of their money. I would like to know whether the Post

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, it is hard for us to know what the best service would be for Canada Post when the government refuses to give us information on their serious study. Can the minister tell us whether or not Canada Post has ever offered banking services in this country?

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, we accept their advice, but we have no idea what their argument is because they have not revealed anything about their study on banking services. In most industrialized countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Italy and Japan, postal outlets offer

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, the Conservative government is therefore supporting Canada Post's plan without providing us with any evidence, any argument or any study to show us why we would not be able to offer banking services, when that is the route most OECD countries are taking. According to

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, which municipalities will be the next to be affected by cuts to home delivery?

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, Canada Post is a crown corporation. It could therefore take advantage of others' expertise to be able to offer basic banking services that would work, that would generate income and that would likely generate higher profits for Canada Post. For example, we have the Ban

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, 58 Canadian municipalities, including the largest ones, have passed resolutions opposing Canada Post's service cuts. We would like to know what the minister will do to ensure people's safety, particularly with respect to identity theft, with huge community mailboxes in

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, two-thirds of Canadians get mail delivered to their door. They will lose that service if we agree to the Conservative government's measures. The minister did not answer my question. Where will these community mailboxes be located in major urban centres? Nobody knows.

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, more municipalities oppose the Canada Post cuts than were consulted by Canada Post. That is pretty unbelievable. According to a study by the Canadian Postmasters and Assistants Association, 1,500 rural postal outlets have disappeared in the past 30 years. In most prov

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, unfortunately, the Conservatives have abandoned the rural communities that rely on these postal outlets. The outlets were not only part of the community's economic development, but also of their identity. They were a meeting place for the people in the village. For fo

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, I would like to take a moment to publicly wish the Minister of Transport a happy birthday. After that, I stop playing nice. Here is my first question: Between 1995 and 2012, how many years was Canada Post profitable for?

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, my question was simple and it should have had a very short answer. The answer was actually 17 years. My colleague did not need two minutes for her answer. Canada Post has posted a profit 17 out of the past 18 years. The only loss posted in that period was in 2011. Wh

Business of Supply  Mr. Chair, once again, the minister is not answering the question. The only one-time expense in 2011 was the pay equity settlement that took 31 years to materialize. I imagine that the minister agrees with the pay equity settlement. Canada Post would have turned a profit in 2011