Government Operations committee  I'd like to add one thing. Despite how the union might feel about Deepak, we've had such a close connection with Canada Post for such a long time that we see a genuine interest in making things better, and perhaps a little more long-term, down-the-road thinking than we've seen i

Government Operations committee  I'm not really sure or fully grasping what you're saying. You're saying that savings should be made in the urban area to maintain the rural facilities. It seems, on the surface, to be the opposite way of going about it. Again, I'm not running Canada Post, thank goodness.

Government Operations committee  Yes.

Government Operations committee  We don't market to other countries besides Canada and the U.S. We have isolated or one-off customers here and there, too, such as in Japan. At the end of seasons, as well, seeds that might not hold their germination rates to the standard we want to sell commercially, we will util

Government Operations committee  Our sales force is our printed catalogue.

Government Operations committee  It's from the experts in the gardening field who work for us, my observation of what the competition is doing, what is new around the world....

Government Operations committee  Sometimes it is—

Government Operations committee  —or it's what my wife wants in the catalogue.

Government Operations committee  We have a very large team within our marketing and horticultural divisions. That's why we run a 40-acre research farm where we have trials of new varieties that you might not even see for four or five years. We have trial gardens in Holland and in the United States for new produc

Government Operations committee  As you know, a crown corporation is a very odd entity.

Government Operations committee  In private business we can make a decision at noon and have it implemented at two o'clock, whether it was smart or not. At five o'clock, if we found out it didn't work, we could change our mind the next day. There's such a bureaucracy within Canada Post, and then you add the as

Government Operations committee  We moved some of our parcel delivery over to alternative services, particularly at times leading up to the expiration of a 72-hour notice or an eventual notice. So Canada Post lost some business from us. We incurred higher costs as a result of having to do that. When it came to

Government Operations committee  You got it.

Government Operations committee  I do get a better deal. I'm at rate group 11, or whatever it's called, which is the best discount rate on parcel products that you can get across the country. Canada Post's hands are tied. It's not like a business, where we can write you a cheque or we can discount this or that.

Government Operations committee  It was in a rural area.