Tag: Worldwide

Introduction

In reviewing the mandate and assessing the future of an institution that touches as many lives as Canada Post Corporation, one cannot hope to entirely satisfy everyone. Interests legitimately diverge, and perspectives honestly differ.
What is essential is that every point of view be given a full and fair hearing, and that all available information be objectively and thoroughly assessed. This the Review has made every attempt to do. In carrying out the responsibilities entrusted to me on behalf of the Government by the then Minister Responsible for Canada Post, the Honourable David Dingwall, in November 1995, I have been guided at all times by a determination that the processes of this Review must be as open, accessible, independent and even-handed as humanly possible.
To that end, the Review placed advertisements in 678 newspapers and sent letters to close to 1,000 potentially interested parties, inviting written submissions by the deadline of February 15, 1996. A total of 440 formal submissions and 1,084 letters were received, including petitions from municipalities with a total of 2,480 signatures. To ensure maximum public access, all formal submissions were posted by the Review on the internet. As well, 1,116 telephone calls about substantive issues pertaining to the Review were received from Canadians across the country. This constitutes evidence of a remarkably high level of current nation-wide interest in the role and activities of Canada Post. By way of comparison, the last review of the mandate of the corporation a decade ago received a total of 131 submissions, including letters.
Public meetings were held in March and April in six Canadian cities: Vancouver, Winnipeg, Montreal, Halifax, Toronto and Ottawa. Their purpose was to permit the Review to hear first-hand a representative cross-section of the organizations, companies and individuals who had made submissions and to explore their views through brief dialogue. Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), at their respective requests, appeared before the Review in each of the cities. Time was also set aside at the end of each day for members of the general public to offer brief comments. A total of 111 presentations were heard in 14 days of public meetings, not including the representatives of Canada Post Corporation and the CUPW, who appeared at each location.
To ensure that a sampling of the ideas and concerns of Canadians in rural areas could be communicated as clearly as those of interested parties in urban centres, the Review supplemented the formal public meetings with town hall meetings in Witless Bay, (Newfoundland) and Iqaluit, (Northwest Territories) and with focus groups in Bay Bulls, (Newfoundland), Unity, (Saskatchewan) and Iqaluit. Urban focus groups were also held in Montreal, Toronto, and Calgary. A total of 96 individuals participated in these focus groups. And, finally, nation-wide quantitative research with a total sample of 1500 was conducted for the Review by Decima Research.
In order to provide access to the best possible information, the Review also had informal meetings with appropriate individuals and organizations in the United States and Canada. In the United States, the Review met in Washington with Mr. Michael S. Coughlin, the U.S. Deputy Postmaster, and senior members of his staff, as well as with Mr. Dan Blair, Staff Director, Postal Service Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives. In New York, the Review met with specialists on the impact of information technologies at Columbia University, and with a panel of experts kindly assembled by the Canadian Consul General in New York, Mr. George Haynal. Here in Canada, the Review held extensive individual discussions with the senior management of Canada Post, including members of the Board of Directors, and with the leadership of all the postal unions, particularly CUPW, as well as with CUPW representatives from across the country. The Re