Government Operations committee  Simply having a process to be able to reverse charges would be incredibly helpful. Right now, the surcharge can be levied within hours of a mailing being inducted. If it is determined that there was—the expression that I hear quite often—“overzealous application of the rules” by the Canada Post employees and it's determined that it is not a correct surcharge, it can take weeks or months for that surcharge to be reversed.

Government Operations committee  I'd like to make a point. The fines are considered surcharges. Canada Post has been going through updating their invoices and their financial system, and they do not have a process for reversing surcharges. If there is a mistake—and generally these are often mistakes on the Canada Post end so there's an issue at induction—and the employee believes that something has been done wrong, they automatically fine the mailer.

Government Operations committee  We can take a look at the U.S., specifically with catalogue mailers, which have Saturday delivery. Catalogue mailers have been very resistant to removing that. They aim to have their catalogues there on a Saturday so that their recipient has a chance to sit down, flip through it, and look at what they would like.

Government Operations committee  Mr. Chair, I'm going to start. I'm Kristi Kanitz from NAMMU. I'm the board chair. I'll do a quick introduction and then pass it over to Patrick. NAMMU is the sole voice of the mail industry in Canada. It's a national non-profit that has been representing the industry for over 30 years.