Government Operations committee  On Australia—and also on Switzerland maybe—there are consortia in Australia that were created maybe over a hundred years ago, but we're talking about entering a market today for postal banking. There's a reason why Canada and the United States got out of that in 1968-69. It was because nobody was using the service.

Government Operations committee  As Mrs. Bertrand said, we worked within a framework, but we also echoed the recommendation made by Mr. Campbell in 2008. The recommendation is to take things further, to bring together all those people, not only those from the union and the Canada Post management, but also government representatives, stakeholders, as well as individuals who buy those services or benefit from them.

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  EKOS. It wasn't the Yahoo site.

Government Operations committee  When we proposed the alternate-day delivery, we were talking about the mail delivery, not the parcel delivery, because we understand that Canadians want parcels every day. That, we heard loud and clear. What they don't necessarily want is the mail, because they don't necessarily expect a letter every day.

Government Operations committee  If you look strictly at the last negotiation, as Madam Bertrand said, we were almost done when that was agreed. In the review, though, we did consider the opportunity that exists with the financial— situation of Canada Post, the composition of the union membership and see how we could harmonize the two.

Government Operations committee  No, that's fine.

Government Operations committee  Canada Post's main revenue comes from mail and related transactions. In the last 10 years, it has dropped by 33%. In the last five years, the drop has been 20%. If you look at the rate at which the number is increasing, it explains the lack of growth. Mail is Canada Post's main source of revenue.

Government Operations committee  It is expanding, but we are in a competitive world.

Government Operations committee  Okay. No. We talk about the employee as a fixed cost.

Government Operations committee  You're looking to see if 99% are satisfied with Canada Post.

Government Operations committee  The clause says no layoff after five years of work.

Government Operations committee  In some ways, yes, because you cannot move workers beyond 40 kilometres of their work location.

Government Operations committee  You know collective agreements; there are always some stipulations and some restrictions. Canada Post has a no-layoff clause in its collective agreement.

Government Operations committee  We did really look at that. When we say that 70% of the labour costs are fixed costs, there is very little room to manoeuvre, unless you do a complete change in the governance and the approach. As far as the location is concerned, we're saying that the window is the perfect window.