Government Operations committee  Thank you for that question. It is not the case, that I'm aware of. Again, I've only been holding this position for about a month now, so I'm fairly new in this cycle, but certainly from my own experience—with all due respect to the speaker who was here earlier who talked about newspapers and flyers—some people don't love their flyers.

Government Operations committee  It would be lovely if we could have your phone number.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. Through you, Mr. Chair, the answer is yes. I think we would have been able to come to a better solution for everyone had there been more consultation in the beginning. It is still my reality. I am still representing my municipality, plus all of the municipalities in Ontario.

Government Operations committee  Absolutely: better solutions come by collaboration and talking to each other. Canada Post post offices across Ontario are community hubs. That's where you find out who died or who had a baby. That's where you figure out what happened to your lost cat or get your children a babysitting job.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. In large urban centres, it has been door-to-door mail delivery. In small-town Ontario and rural Ontario, it's still the mailbox at the end of the farm driveway. Also, in small-town Ontario, the older residents are picking up mail at the post office; they have a slot in the post office.

Government Operations committee  Certainly, and I thank you, MP Brassard. As a former municipal councillor, you will understand that, first of all, nobody wants these. It's always “not in my backyard” or “not beside my house”. By working and planning when the plans of the subdivision come in and having that done ahead of time, when the potential purchasers of that property move there they know what's going to be there, as opposed to it being put there afterward.

Government Operations committee  I think that any services they can deliver would be helpful. I'm going to use another personal example from my community. Again, it's fairly large, and you would think 35,000 people would be sustainable, but it's also a very large community and there are tiny pockets. You can't assume that a population of that size is all going to be contained in a small area.

Government Operations committee  Well, I can say that change happens, and probably the first time we hear about it is from a resident who has told us about what has happened. There has been very little consultation between municipalities and Canada Post.

Government Operations committee  Well, I'm new at this job, so maybe I haven't developed that level of animosity yet.

Government Operations committee  I would suggest that whoever we're talking to needs to have two ears: they need to listen to what municipalities have to say about what's going to work on the ground, what's going to work in northern Ontario, and what's going to work in large urban centres. They need to hear from us, because we know better than anyone what's going to work in our communities.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question. Yes, there is AODA, the Accessible Ontarians Disabilities Act directorate, which I think is something that you should be looking at, along with the work on age-friendly communities and aging in place done by AMO. The recommendations in both of those documents I think would serve you well.

Government Operations committee  My suggestion is that it would be very difficult in very rural, or remote, or northern Ontario communities. You will understand that if somebody with a disability, maybe, is trying to get to their mailbox and there's a snowbank in front of that mailbox, they're not going to call Canada Post.

Government Operations committee  Exactly. That becomes an issue.

Government Operations committee  Inside communities, I think it's really important, as was demonstrated in Hamilton, that it also work, understanding that municipalities also have rules. Before you plunk down a community mailbox somewhere, know that maybe in that municipality road widening is going to happen, or that maybe there's a better location for it, or that maybe it doesn't fit in with the rezoning that's going to happen on that corner.

Government Operations committee  Absolutely.