Letter to Bibiane Ouellette - RE: Request to appear as a witness on Bill C-14

Bibiane Ouellette
Clerk, Standing Committee on
Transport, Infrastructure and Communities
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6

 

Dear Ms. Ouellette:

RE: Request to appear as a witness on Bill C-14

I am writing in connection with Bill C-14, an Act to amend the Canada Post Corporation Act. If passed, this legislation would partially deregulate Canada Post by removing international letters from Canada Post’s exclusive privilege to deliver letters.

Canada Post was provided with an 'exclusive privilege' to collect, transmit and deliver letters, including international letters, in order to finance the corporation's universal service obligation (USO). As a result, we believe it is imperative that Bill C-14 be considered in the context of the USO.

Canada Post’s exclusive privilege is also central to the corporation’s mandate of providing basic customary postal service while improving service, operating on a financially self-sustaining basis and balancing the objectives of the corporation with the needs of its employees. We strongly believe that Bill C-14 should likewise be viewed in the context of Canada Post’s overall mandate.

We are extremely concerned that the government has decided to partially deregulate Canada Post without considering the USO and the mandate and without conducting a thorough and public review.

The union respectfully requests that the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities hold hearings and hear witnesses in connection with Bill C-14 once this bill passes second reading. To date, there has been no real inquiry into the international mail issue that has caused the government to introduce this bill. There are many unanswered questions. For example, did Minister Lawrence Cannon actually review this issue as he said he was going to? If so, what are the results of his review? If he didn’t, why didn’t he? How much international mail is being moved by remailers? How much has the international mail business grown and what are future growth projections? How much of Canada’s international mail goes to the United States and how much goes to developing countries? How many mailers are exploiting the system that was developed, in part, to help developing countries? Who are the international mailers? How many of them are actually small homegrown businesses and how many are big international companies and postal administrations?

Why did Minister Cannon change his mind about international mail? On July 25, 2006 , his office said that “The activities of international remailers cost Canada Post millions of dollars each year and erodes the Corporation's ability to maintain a healthy national postal service and provide universal service to all Canadians.'

CUPW would like to appear as a witness before the Committee. We would also like to suggest that the Committee hear from knowledgeable witnesses on the subject of remail and the universal service obligation. Likewise, it would be helpful to hear from representatives of rural groups, the people who are most likely to suffer service cuts and rate hikes as a result of the gradual erosion of the exclusive privilege.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

 

Yours truly,

 

Deborah Bourque
National President
Canadian Union of Postal Workers

 

c.c.: 

National Executive Committee
Regional Executive Committees
Regional Union Representatives
National Union Representatives
Specialists
All CUPW locals
Moya Greene, President of Canada Post
Gilles Duceppe, Leader, Bloc Quebecois
Mario Laframboise, MP
Stephen Harper, Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada
Minister Lawrence Cannon
Jack Layton, Leader, New Democratic Party
David Christopherson, MP
Stéphane Dion, Leader, Liberal Party
Joe Volpe, MP
Leslie Schous, President, Canadian Postmasters and Assistants Association
Richard Des Lauriers, President, Union of Postal Communications Employees,
Public Service Alliance of Canada