Government Operations committee  I agree with David. We are an essential service. We are the only ones who go everywhere. If you don't think so, come and see. On any day, we have FedEx parcels that have been shipped through Canada Post. Canpar, UPS, Purolator—we take them all. We're the only ones who do go everywhere.

Government Operations committee  As to our pension plan and the...?

Government Operations committee  There's the “going concern” and then there's—

Government Operations committee  Is Canada Post going to close their doors tomorrow?

Government Operations committee  Well, then, why do we have to fall under that?

Government Operations committee  I would love to, but there needs to be a change in management, because they're not listening. They haven't listened to us for—how many years?

Government Operations committee  Considering that Vermilion Bay does not have a post office and their credit union closed a couple of years ago, that in Ignace the CIBC closed this summer, that Pickle Lake does not have a post office, and that up north they do not have post offices, it would be a perfect solution in term of helping all of those people do their daily banking.

Government Operations committee  There is a post office of some sort in every northern community.

Government Operations committee  As far as I know, they all have computers. They all have what in Canada Post is called the RPS system. Shoppers uses it as well. Why Shoppers is even here, I don't know, because they're not that far from the post office, and it seems sometimes that half the stuff that gets sent out gets returned because they did it wrong.

Government Operations committee  We were slated to go to the first CMBs this year, but because of the election, that plan was put on hold temporarily. As my boss loves to say, “It's gonna come.” What gets me is the way they've written it, trying to say there are fewer people who get door-to-door delivery than people who don't.

Government Operations committee  As I put in my brief, when I started working at the post office, I was working night shift. I got a night shift difference of a dollar an hour. That was the difference between what I was making and what the guys at the mill were making. I didn't have any benefits. Now they're making 50 to 60 bucks an hour, depending; I'm making $26 an hour.

Government Operations committee  I'd be glad to. Going back to the mid-1980s, they took the machine out of south central, which is Toronto, and put it into Thunder Bay. They wound up taking it out a couple of years later because it was not viable. They didn't have enough volume. Back in the 1980s was when there was mail.

Government Operations committee  That should not have happened. It shouldn't be correct, because of the rates. First class mail comes first. You have Priority and Xpresspost as first class mail—

Government Operations committee  Publications are second class mail. That's the order, and Admail is the last. What they generally do, according to what I've heard from other centres—because it hasn't happened here—is allow for overtime to get more done. Because of the way they have structured the routes now, they are delivering to more and more places because the volume of mail is dropping and everything is based on how much coverage there is.

Government Operations committee  I've been there for 42 years, so I've been through a few strikes and I've seen a lot of things change. Why does Canada Post have 22 vice-presidents who are being paid as much as they are? Why does it have a president who's being paid as much as he is? Why did it build brand new buildings in Winnipeg and Vancouver if mail volumes are dropping?