Government Operations committee  I'll have to fess up and confess that I have not studied the history of it. I wouldn't be able to comment intelligently on the history of that case, but I think the unfair competition points that we make.... I referred earlier to the ability of credit unions to offer postal services in certain communities.

Government Operations committee  I think we would see it as leaning towards a public service, and it needs to be funded. In terms of its being a business, I think our comments outlined our position. Even our business we see as not profit-motivated but as an access to services that need to be funded and priced in such a way as to afford their delivery.

Government Operations committee  Let me start by acknowledging that the adoption of technology is not as easy it sounds for everybody. To the other presenters, I would acknowledge that technology is not the answer for everything either, but it's certainly the trend. In terms of cheque cashing, to use that as an example, we see the use of cheques rapidly declining.

Government Operations committee  Thank you.

Government Operations committee  Yes. In fact, in the last three or four years we've had a stronger partnership with Farm Credit Canada. We're working together to figure out how we can complement each other in the market, rather than having these competitive spaces based on unfair competitive advantage.

Government Operations committee  In Saskatchewan's credit unions, we have branches in all corners of the province. I would say probably the remote ones would be as far north as Buffalo Narrows, and communities like that.

Government Operations committee  I think we'd probably acknowledge that we have a common view that some of the more northern communities are the ones that are maybe less served in that physical presence kind of way, and that was one of the things behind this innovation of creating a mobile service centre to travel around to different parts of the country.

Government Operations committee  I do think there is opportunity to explore partnerships and synergies in that way. I'll reference two things. One is that when we recreated our credit union legislation in Saskatchewan back in the early 2000s, there was actually a provision built in that enabled credit unions to consider postal services in-branch for exactly such a partnership as that in small communities.

Government Operations committee  On the two paradigms, that is a very familiar set of paradigm questions that apply to the credit union system and to financial services, so we have that in common with Canada Post. It really comes down to physical delivery models that have built up over a period of history, and now moving to different methods and different access channels through the use of technology and other approaches.

Government Operations committee  Yes. I think it would be focusing on the methods as much as adding services, and looking to future innovations in the ways in which the services are provided. For us, the innovations in transportation, technology, and communication are challenging the ways in which we provide financial services.

Government Operations committee  Sorry, could you repeat? Did you say the vision is to continue to close the smaller ones if there isn't action?

Government Operations committee  If I draw on the experience of credit union services, I can point to the change in our infrastructure as a credit union system. In the past 15 years, say, the number of credit unions across Canada has declined from something like 1,000 or 900 down to 300. At the same time, they have continued to grow in terms of membership, as well as in terms of business volume, deposits, loans, and these types of things.

Government Operations committee  I couldn't tell you exactly the population number. We can certainly offer to bring that back to you as information to the committee. In some of these cases that we're talking about, the communities are very small. Rather than speculating, I think it would be best to get you that number.

Government Operations committee  I thank you for the question. We are certainly very open to engaging with the government in terms of exploring partnership opportunities. We've had examples far back in our history of small-town credit unions and postal outlets even sharing locations, so I think that if there are opportunities to help each other out, this is something we'd be open to taking a look at.

Government Operations committee  In terms of starting a new credit union, there are some metrics around what kind of a deposit level might be required to operate a separate financial institution, and those thresholds are growing higher all the time. Do you have a commitment of a local deposit base that would place funds on deposit?