Sort out potential and real losses
In the parliamentary debate of March 31, Lisa Raitt, the minister responsible for Canada Post, responded to a question about rate increases as follows: “We want to ensure that the taxpayer is not on the hook for the ongoing potential losses at Canada Post …”
Hmm, “ongoing potential losses” sounds like a creative accounting phrase, not reality. It is akin to saying that the Edmonton Oilers are guaranteed a playoff spot because of their ongoing potential wins. Perhaps Raitt needs to be reminded, as do many Canadians, that Canada Post has been financially self-sufficient since its inception as a Crown corporation in 1981. The taxpayer has never been on the hook for so much as one dime.
Furthermore, Canada Post has been profitable in the past 15 or 16 years, and has returned more than $1.5 billion to the Canadian taxpayer in dividends. (In 2011, Canada Post recorded a loss because of a lockout and a decadesold pay equity settlement.)
These are facts the minister conveniently chooses to ignore. She continuously refers to the decline in lettermail (this is first-class lettermail, mind you) without acknowledging the tremendous increase in parcel volume that Canada Post is experiencing. In fact on Dec. 9, 2013, Canada Post broke the record for the most parcels delivered in one day. Despite this, on Dec. 11, 2013, Canada Post revealed its five-point strategy for saving the corporation from (potential) financial ruin, including postage increases and the elimination of door-to-door delivery, neither of which is justified.
Canada Post is actually in a position to expand services, not reduce them. Postal banking is a service that has been implemented successfully in European countries; however, when this is suggested to Raitt, she responded by saying that more Canadians pay their bills online anyway, so “why would Canada Post go from one problem to another?” Again, Raitt seems to be completely ignorant of an entire division of Canada Post called e-post, where Canadians can go online to both receive and pay their bills.
The five-point plan supported by the government includes the loss of 15,000 jobs. It seems to have less to do with maintaining a profitable national asset and more to do with its deliberate dismantling. Additionally, employees of Canada Post are taxpayers. The elimination of positions is the elimination of 15,000 Canadians paying income tax, employment insurance and CPP. It is the unsecure future for those remaining that will not be doing that reno, that will not be taking that vacation, that will not be buying that vehicle, that will not be contributing to the economy. Those losses, Ms. Raitt, are very real.