December 5, 2003
(Letter sent to the Victoria Times Colonist)
Dear Editor:
I am the Canada Post "apologist" wishing to respond to the December 4th letter from Eric Payne, "Price of a letter getting too high." The price for lettermail to Europe in the New Year will be $1.40, not $1.60 as stated by Mr. Payne.
Canada Post is not immune to the rising costs of providing service to our customers. Consider for a moment the price of fuel - Canada Post has one of the largest fleets of vehicles in the country and there are over 750 planned domestic flights carrying mail every business day. Our delivery network expands by some 170,000 new addresses annually and every one per cent of salary increase for our unionized employees equates to a $30 million cost to the corporation. Another cost is Terminal Dues (a pricing mechanism that allows the destination postal administration to collect for the cost of delivery from the administration sending the mail) that continue to escalate annually.
As well as being the seventh largest employer in Canada, Canada Post spends $2 billion annually on goods and services, creating 30,000 additional jobs. The Corporation is continually investing in new equipment and technology and has a planned investment of $640 million in 2003.
Contrary to Mr. Payne's comment, it is very relevant that we compare the price of sending a letter from England to Canada ($2.37) when complaining about the cost to send that same letter from Canada to England.
As for using the telephone to communicate rather than mail, think about this. If you never make or receive a telephone call, you are still charged a monthly fee. In the case of mail, it's a user-pay system, you continue to receive mail free of charge whether you send letters or not.
Sincerely,
John Caines
Manager, National Media Relations
Ottawa (613) 734-7675
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