Government Operations committee  Good morning. I have to apologize. I didn't prepare any notes. I never stick to them anyway.

Government Operations committee  I'd like to thank the committee chair and honourable members for giving us this opportunity to speak. I'd like to thank Penny for starting. I come to you as a small-business person, I would even say a micro-business person. I'm also a graduate student at the University of Pri

Government Operations committee  That's a great series of questions. To begin, I do notice that there has been a change in the way that deliveries happen from rural parts of the island to central parts of the island and off-island. It is my understanding that now any parcels or letter mail are not sorted on th

Government Operations committee  The bulk of sales by all members on the island are to the mainland, but usually to the United States or internationally. Speaking from my own experience, probably only about 1% of my sales would be in the Maritimes and then maybe 10% would be to the rest of Canada and a pretty so

Government Operations committee  I would say yes.

Government Operations committee  As someone who really rarely sends letter mail or only sends very small packages—which wouldn't the case for the bulk of my group of makers and artisans I'm speaking for—I'm not really sure what the effect of that would be.

Government Operations committee  I don't have any ideas.

Government Operations committee  Even a small increase to the base costs of sending parcels and letter mail would have an impact on a lot of the people I'm speaking for. If someone's earnings for a year might only be a couple of thousand dollars, paying even $12 instead of $10 to send something really starts to

Government Operations committee  I suppose that is the postal service's shared responsibility. Even though I realize it is a crown corporation, a federal responsibility, I see how the concept of being able to send and receive mail could be something that's shared—not necessarily always in cost, but in responsibi

Government Operations committee  I'll just share this very quickly. I recently spoke at a legislative standing committee on a separate issue, but I'm realizing how many parallels there are. It was on the closing of the ferry for the summer. I see that there should be equitable access to service for rural and u

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  Ideally.

Government Operations committee  I'd say that people would definitely prioritize reliability. That is something that I've personally noticed. I've spoken to other people about this, and they've noticed that over the past few years, they have seen a rise in lost or broken packages, which usually has to come out o

Government Operations committee  Are you asking if—

Government Operations committee  Yes.