Should Canada Post make money? NDP’s new leader Avi Lewis doesn’t think so
NDP leader Avi Lewis is stirring debate after arguing Canada Post should be treated like an essential public service rather than a profit-driven corporation — just as the agency posts billions in losses and growing pressure over its future.
#Canada #CanadianPolitics #cdnpoli #CanadaPost #MarkCarney #AviLewis #austerity #CUPW
@leftylabourtech I think people have been so indoctrinated to believe that everything should be run like a business:(
capitalism=exploitation/extraction
socialism/collectivisim=sustainablity/community
@leftylabourtech I haven't read it but I seem to recall years ago there were discussions on how Post Offices could offer public banking / financial services 👍
https://www.cupw.ca/en/campaign/resources/postal-banking-%E2%80%93-bank-everyone-fact-sheet
Postal banking is the provision of financial and banking services through a post office. It is not a new or radical idea. Postal banks already exist in many parts of the world where they are used to: increase financial inclusion, promote economic development, and generate revenue to preserve public postal service and jobs. In fact, our post office used to have a national savings bank – up until 1969 – and there is no reason we shouldn’t have one today.
@lps For many years #CUPW has been campaigning for service expansion into things like postal banking.
They have postal banking in France and I've been in some of the outlets. They're crowded and so obviously they are popular.
We need to think outside the corporation and glad to see this discussion opening up.
@leftylabourtech I just saw this article form the #torontostar https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/postal-banking-once-made-canada-post-profitable-and-could-again/article_200ad6a7-ab41-4d4a-8b2a-e3a917eb88cd.html
This 👇
"Actually, banking wouldn’t be a new service. Canada Post offered “postal banking” for more than a century.
And it was a big money-maker, even though Canada Post typically offered its banking customers higher interest rates on their savings accounts than the private banks did. The private banks never liked the competition, and continually pressed Ottawa to end postal banking, which it did in 1969."
@NMBA @PatrickoftheG It's Thatcher's "TINA" (There is no alternative) at work.
But, nice to see public pushback.
@leftylabourtech He is right! CP is the only way to guarantee mail service at a reasonable price to all Canadian communities. Private couriers may be cheaper, but that’s only in large centres because of the volume. They drop remote routes like a hot potato.
Privatizing CP would only mean some areas would go unserviced or some Canadians would have to pay $50 to send a simple letter.
@leftylabourtech There is a neoliberal adage that goes: "If a public sector entity can do it, the private sector can do it more efficiently and for a profit." Hence the selling off of so much of the public estate to corporations." This, of course is a lie.
Post is an essential public service. Sure private delivery operators can pedal their services, but the Post is a public service - just like the roads and rail and electricity and water and telephony and these days, the internet.
@DjityDjity I believe you are in Australia. Historically speaking the NDP in Canada was the rough equivalent of the ALP, although generally somewhat to the left of it.
And I understand the ALP has shifted into neo-liberalism in recent decades.
With the changes that happened this past weekend, the NDP has taken a great leap to the left, and I'm very pleased to see that.
Canada Post has to serve the entire country. For rural and remote areas there’s not many if any other options, but the Liberals don’t care about “those”people and the conservatives don’t either, they just say they do.
For profit businesses will not do that unless they are subsidized by the government.
That means we will pay either way, because we still need to move a lot of stuff in envelopes.
That is the price you pay to be part of a huge country. You provide services to all citizens, not just those who you can make money from.
LeftyLabourTechToronto
lps
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