Finance committee  Thank you. Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to address this committee today. My name is Susan Margles and I am vice-president of government relations and policy at Canada Post. It is my job and the job of my team to ensure that parliamentarians are fully informed about Canada Post and that we maintain a productive relationship.

Finance committee  It was $7.3 billion in 2009.

Finance committee  Our estimates are between $40 and $80 million, so it is around that number, yes.

Finance committee  No, actually, Mr. McCallum. The way we estimated the $40 to $80 million I just referred to was to look at what we thought would be open to a threat from these competitors if the bill as it's presented today were to pass. That's our total estimate of what we believe...and we don't have a lot of information about the other businesses in this market because it is a competitive market, so you can understand that people keep these things fairly close.

Finance committee  No, it's not.

Finance committee  Yes, that's our estimate. Let me just give a bit of precision around that, Mr. McCallum. What I tried to say in my opening remarks is that we acknowledge that it is a small amount and that we do not believe it will affect our ability to deliver on our universal service obligations.

Finance committee  Oh, oh!

Finance committee  No, I wouldn't say that. We're going to do a lot of things. We are already halfway through the postal transformation process. We're changing the way we process and deliver mail. We want to have the capacity to modify our cost framework to make it more flexible when there are changes on the revenue side.

Finance committee  Definitely.

Finance committee  No, because we can go after other revenue in other market sectors. Perhaps we can increase the number of our clients in the parcel or direct marketing sectors.

Finance committee  In terms of size or just in terms of the permission?

Finance committee  No, you're correct. My understanding is that the United States and many of the European countries, in crafting the exclusive privilege for their postal administrations, have already had--or have had all along--this part of the market open.

Finance committee  Yes. I haven't looked at the numbers per se, but my understanding is that yes, most of the countries in Europe and the U.S., as I say, have had this market open for quite a number of years.

Finance committee  We have some part of this market right now. We have some customers who print and give it to us to deliver to other countries. It's not just the remailers who are in the business; we are also in this business. It is that part of the business I'm referring to. The truth is this has been in court and disputed for a number of years.

Finance committee  I've estimated—and I referred to this earlier—that an amount of $40 million to $80 million was at stake.