Government Operations committee  Well, I think the money issue, since you put it that way, is more important for our consumers buying abroad. For sellers, I always put it on my truck and drive it to the U.S. I've been doing so for 15 years. I keep doing it; it's not a problem. As for Europe, we'll set up depots in Europe.

Government Operations committee  I would say they seem to have been successful with it from the point of view of e-commerce. They're global leaders. If we're going to be their neighbours and we're going to have free trade with them, maybe it's something we should consider.

Government Operations committee  No, I never said that. Maybe the person this morning said that.

Government Operations committee  When you say “competitors”, do you mean the competitors to my business?

Government Operations committee  We do. We do only use Canada Post.

Government Operations committee  What I said was that it's cheaper for foreigners sometimes than it is for us to send to remote areas in our country. Canada Post does provide a very good service. If we use UPS or other carriers, we will do so only on larger packages and only when we really need the tracking, because this is something Canada Post doesn't do very well.

Government Operations committee  China is actually a good example, because they don't only subsidize their postal service, they practically render it free. If you go on aliexpress.com or alibaba.com and you choose something you want to buy, you click on it and you choose delivery to Canada. They will either charge you very little or they'll do free shipping.

Government Operations committee  Yes. Unfortunately, I only see this as a consumer, not as a businessman. I myself don't buy from Europeans, so I don't know what they do. I do buy from Americans, and I do see what the American rates are, since I'm also a client of the United States Postal Service. As I said, they will mark up a product coming to Canada, maybe 30% to 40% more than domestic, whereas we tend to mark it up a lot more in Canada.

Government Operations committee  Absolutely.

Government Operations committee  The most important thing would be to reduce the large cost variations between local parcels and those sent to the far ends of our country so that we could compete better with parcels coming from outside. I have the American model in mind, I think about what the Americans have done with their postal services in the last 15 years and all the stages they have gone through.

Government Operations committee  Certainly, when Canada Post puts up parcel rates, they do not go up for Canadians only. Foreigners have to follow the rules established by the Universal Postal Union. So that puts Canadians at an even greater disadvantage and adversely affects our efficiency. For some time, we were even sending our Canadian parcels to the United States so that they could be sent back to Canada.

Government Operations committee  Online business is B to B, business to business. However, most of our sales are B to C, that is, business to consumer. Delivery is residential, even with commercial products. Online business is linked to residential delivery in at least 80% of the cases. Delivery service twice or three times per week makes no sense.

Government Operations committee  What I am saying is that a customer buying something online wants to receive it quickly. If Canada Post provides a delivery service in two or three days and another company provides it on the same day or the next day, Canada Post will not be making that delivery. Delivery time is a very important factor for online business.

Government Operations committee  As I mentioned previously, the service in the United States is a little quicker. I am not talking about express service, because we have that both in Canada and the United States. I am talking about a normal delivery service from New York to California in two or three days. In Canada, to deliver a parcel from Montreal to British Columbia, you need four to six days.

Government Operations committee  What I'm going to be speaking about is very different from these gentlemen.