Andrew Coyne thinks so. Here’s part of his argument:
An elderly Winnipeg couple had their mail service abruptly cut off because their front steps were judged a safety hazard, being two inches taller than the 12-inch maximum;
Homeowners who post a “no flyer” notice on their mailbox have received letters from Canada Post warning them that by refusing to accept delivery of junk mail they are missing out on a chance to be “connected with your local community”;
The corporation has fallen back into its old habit of losing money, after more than a decade in the black. A study by the Conference Board of Canada projects annual losses of $1 billion by the end of the decade. Indeed, as the National Post’s John Ivison has reported, Canada Post itself predicts it will run out of cash as early as next spring, helped along by a $5.9-billion unfunded liability in its pension plan;
It has, however, settled a three-decade old suit with the Public Service Alliance of Canada over pay-equity claims, at an estimated total cost of $250 million;
Meanwhile, the corporation cannot explain what it got in return for hiring Dave Dingwall, the former Liberal cabinet minister, as a consultant, at a cost of a million dollars over six years.
Before they consider selling CP to foreign investors, they should make the current model more efficient,with more “super boxes” and fewer days of home delivery,say, three days a week.
Two of my brothers are letter carriers,I’d hate to see them working for minimum wage.
Canada Post has also been a victim of affirmative action hiring,and this may be one reason the service has gone downhill.
All things considered,CP is still a better deal for Canada than the CBC, the Senate,or the Marketing Boards.
His conclusion
“Social justice demands that we redistribute income from rich to poor — not from city to country. In any case, it is the job of the government, not the post office.”
is why I stopped reading his columns years ago. There is no justice, social or otherwise, in taking wealth from those who have earned it in order to give to those who won’t make an effort.
As to Canada Post, who would buy it if the union contract and pension obligations are part of the package?
Plain and simple, Canada Post has been victim of CUPW and other Marxist unions pricing themselves out of the market. Time to privatize this dinosaur although it may be difficult to find a buyer, it should be put out of its misery. Trying to sell Canada Post would be similar to the selling of phone booths years ago by Telus. Who would want to buy them with cell phones everywhere?
And to say that “CP is still a better deal for Canada than the CBC, the Senate,or the Marketing Boards” is stone soup.
The continued existence of crown corporations in the modern world is truly a marvel of stone-age socialist logic.
But then again, so is the continued existence of unions – particularly those struggling with a very oppressive employers, such as canadian gov’ts.
Maybe we should open a few coal mines with the express purpose of forcing labour onto ‘hard done by’ government pensioners and employees. A little shock and awe such as this would do a world of good.
As a bonus, we could let them keep what coal they dig to heat their homes. After all, wouldn’t want them to feeze in the dark – not so heartless as that.
“…the corporation cannot explain what it got in return for hiring Dave Dingwall..”
Well, obviously, they got ‘dinged’. Duh.
This remind of the story on the radio the other day where a guest (it was a reporter, I want to say John Ivison, but not sure) was explaining that he got a notice saying that they could no longer deliver mail to the end of his lane as it was 50 yards past the end of the ‘new’ route.
He was informed his box would be moved to a ‘cluster’ of boxes down the road a bit.
He was then approached by Canada Post for permission to turn around in his driveway for the driver servicing the new mailbox location.
Truth is often stranger than fiction
The issue of the Winnipeg couple with the non-conforming steps is a feature of any bureaucracy afflicted with a union and imposed “worker-safety” regulations. The rational answer is simply to “grandfather” service to addresses that have a problem of this nature, if they were habitually served in the past, and let the grandfathering expire if the property changes hands.
Somehow, I don’t think privatizing is the answer. Alberta Government Telephones was privatized, and became Telus, and the quality of service, if anything, became worse.
Canada Post needs to have a management shakeup, and perhaps a board of directors installed, comprised of representatives from the unions involved, corporation management, and enough ordinary citizens to be able to outvote the in-house board members, if voting in a bloc. Said board to be paid an honorarium only for those days that it actually meets and deliberates.
I’d love to see both unions, especially the inside workers union, given the heave-ho, but I just don’t see it as being politically possible at this time.
It’s true, “social justice” does demand that. Which is why we should tell “social” justice to f*@# off. Compassion for the poor should include making sure they don’t starve, freeze, or go naked. There is such a thing as going too far, keeping them fat and entertained in idleness is corrosive to their souls and moral character and is done mainly to indulge our own whims for feeling good about how generous and compassionate we are. Doing that with our own personally earned and owned surplus is bad enough, doing it with confiscated from our fellow citizens by taxation adds robbery to our malfeasance.
“Meanwhile, the corporation cannot explain what it got in return for hiring Dave Dingwall, the former Liberal cabinet minister, as a consultant, at a cost of a million dollars over six years.”
it is obvious what Dingwall received . . . his entitlement to more entitlements.
Lip Lock, meet Public Teat.
Interesting thoughts so far. A few small facts should be considered in this conversation.
First the benefits from selling off Canada Post real estate is enormous and that kind of money should be thought about.
Secondly, Canada Post is going through a kind of “Kodak” moment. Technology is outpacing the need for snail mail.
In addition we now have a couple of generations in which many individuals can’t write a letter let alone mail one.
So the mail volumes will continue to drop dramatically until they disappear. There may be other ventures they can get into, but other than AD mail I am not sure. In so far as CUPW is concerned much has been written and arguments delivered, but like all organizations if the rank and file don’t participate strongly enough… they lose.
I would urge our Government to find a buyer and sell ASAP. It also should be noted that Germany has already dumped Bundespost and the UK looks to be the next big one. It should also be noted that the last President and CEO of Canada Post, Moira Green, currently heads the UK postal service.
Privatizing makes sense. To do so likely would require stripping the pension debt out of the deal.
The private company would then have what I consider to be one of the greatest monopolies going forward – the sole right to put stuff – actual physical stuff – in each addresses mailbox. That CP is losing money with that monopoly is amazing.
As for bureaucracy being reduced – don’t bet on it – monopolies are only marginally better at reducing it and safety standards are ubiquitous.
And BTW part of the deal should be divesting of Purolator.
I read this and thought: Why does he get door-to-door delivery and I have to go to a super mailbox?? In fact, I haven’t had mail delivery to my front door in probably 20+ years! And I really have not missed it. Getting the old gentleman out and walking a bit every day to the mailbox might not be a bad thing 🙂
And I agree with everyone else here who says the unions are have ruined CP.
How did the 407 privatization go?
Couple of things:
I remember back in the ’70s and early ’80s when just about every second X-mas the posties would go out on strike holding us all hostage at the time because they had a monopoly on delivery of mail and packages.
My Dad was in Ottawa when stalin died. He told me there were two places where the flags were flying at half mast: the soviet embassy and the headquarters of cupw.
We have alternatives now so take your excessive pay and fully indexed pension and shove it!
Karma is really a b!tch
How did the 407 privatization go?
Excellent.
Unfortunately, it’s not going to happen. Harper loves his big government.
Two of my brothers are letter carriers,I’d hate to see them working for minimum wage.
Two of your brothers are doing as grown men work that in a better ordered world a ten-year-old of average intelligence could and would be trained to do just as well for pocket money, in plenty of time to get to school afterwards. The rest of us would get our mail much earlier in the day that way.
And those two fat and lazy gurriers expect to be paid top dollar and get a fat pension for it. Whose fault is it that they have no ambition in life? Ours? More to the point, is it our obligation to pay for them to retire at fifty to a fat pension, a yacht and a Florida condo? The rest of us will be lucky to get a pension paid out in money worth more than the paper it’s printed on, never mind a yacht.
Charity begins at home. You think your useless brothers deserve a yacht and a condo each, feel free to pay for it out of your own pocket. As for the rest of us, anybody who still has enough of his wits to have any business handling his own money pays his bills online. We also do not need any more advertisements for garbage we don’t need shoved in our mailboxes.
Sell it to the unions for $1.
How did the 407 privatization go?
Excellent. It’s far safer than the 401 and in far better shape. I love the 407 and I don’t mind paying a small charge for it.
Not that I begrudge someone a living, but I would have to echo Dick Slater’s thoughts – there is nothing that a letter carrier does that can’t be done by a 14 year old, and the bonus is that there are a lot of 14 year olds that would jump at the chance to earn money delivering 6 days a week for an hour or two a day. Newspapers did it for decades with home delivery, and the amount of flyers I receive in my mailbox far exceeds the amount of real mail.
In fact, since the strike in 2011, the only mail I actually get are from the Credit Union who only recently gave the opportunity for electronic delivery, my professional association (some things just have to be mailed under the bylaws) and the City (who can’t “afford” to upgrade their systems).
Of course, that doesn’t mean my business doesn’t use the mail, but realistically, I don’t think we’d spend more on postage than we have in the past – we fax as much as we can to governments (gives us a confirmation) and we mail very little of the rest. If I had to guess, I would say it might be cheaper for us to send mail because most of ours would then be local.
Ditto with Liquor Store Workers. Ditto with most BC Ferry Workers. Ditto with many Public Sector Unionized Employees. They all live a privileged lifestyle on the backs (and hard work) of private sector workers. Yet they’re most ungrateful about it. 🙁
Dick, as usual, you make a complete fool of yourself,with childish name-calling about people you know nothing about.
Neither brother is “fat and lazy”,they are both lean and in very good physical condition, from carrying 35 pound bags of mail while walking several miles per day. I hunt with them every year and they can walk for miles over rough terrain without breaking a sweat.
But, as usual, you smear the hard workers at Canada Post along with the lazy,fat ones.
Top pension for a letter carrier with 30 years service is about $30,000 a year,hardly “yacht and condo” money. By comparison, an MP who serves only six years sleeping on the back benches gets $40,000 a year. Tell me who provided a more valuable service.
Yes,I want to see my family looked after, just like any sane person does. Some people work hard for their living,regardless of the company they work for.
Some day I hope the Canadian Health Care system figures out how to do brain transplants.I’ll recommend you, Slater, for the first one,might improve on your usual bigotted, hate-filled contributions to this site.
In that case, I want to be first in line for Slater’s brain.
btw don, are your brothers happy with their union dues going to support Palestinian terrorists? If your brothers are capable of earning a living, they will be able to find better work.
OK,first off,Canada Post is going through a process called “Postal Transformation” .
This will change the delivery format in all Canadian cities. It consists of greatly increasing the points of delivery. The letter carriers will now also deliver almost all parcels. They will be doing “park and loop”. To do this Canada Post has spent billions in capital costs.
Over the past two years they have purchased about 5,000 new delivery vehicles and about 15,000 hand-held Personal Data Transfer devives. The vehicles and PDTs are not cheap. They also had to purchase sequential sorting machines for every mail sorting center. The corporation expects to cut the workforce by about 15% in the next few years through attrition.
That is why they lost money. They spent it to save money in the long run. It ain’t rocket science,it is poor reporting mixed with an agenda to demonize the employees in the court of public opinion. Obviously it is working.
I don’t have a problem with the cost-cutting. It is being run like a business,as it should. The union,CUPW,(and Dingwall)is another matter.
However,Canada Post also has a mandate to provide affordable postal service to every community in Canada. Privitization cannot do that. That is why there is a letter monopoly. The Radwanski mandate review of 1992 explains this very well,and the points made then are still valid today. Radwanski(L) may have some ‘personality’ problems,like Andre Ouellet(L) the former head of Canada Post,but his report was sound.
CUPW was at one time a union force that looked after its members and upset a lot of Canadians. Today,CUPW is a shadow of that. They look after Palestinian terrorists which upsets their members.A case in point. It has been over 18 months since the last contract was ratified. The employees still have not received a copy of the contract. We are working with a contract that we cannot access. That puts us in the unenviable position of having to take either the union’s word or the corporation’s word on daily matters. That almost always works in management’s favour. The union should rectify the situation,but … who knows,’freedom flotillas’ may have got in the way.
Support your letter carrier. Today’s Post Office is not what it was 20 years ago.
Oh yeah,the 14 inch step complaint,well rules are rules,99% of posties would not give it a moment’s notice,but there are anal people everywhere.
Hey DICK, 90% of new hires do not last a year. I work with many that can’t do it day in and day out without complaint. The current old-timers are suffering from years of job-related repetitive injury.You may have heard that soldiers have it rough,strapping a 30 pound pack on their shoulders and taking a 10 mile hike ???
Now,imagine doing that every workday for 30 years. It wears you down,step by step,year by year.
However,Canada Post also has a mandate to provide affordable postal service to every community in Canada. Privitization cannot do that. That is why there is a letter monopoly. The Radwanski mandate review of 1992 explains this very well,and the points made then are still valid today.
What points? That I have some moral obligation to kneel before a government monopoly and its lousy service so some hick in podunk nowhere can get (supposedly) cheaper mail? FTS and f*ck Canada Post. I make a point of depriving CP of as much business as I can. We need a black market in domestic mail delivery.
“However,Canada Post also has a mandate to provide affordable postal service to every community in Canada. Privitization cannot do that. That is why there is a letter monopoly. The Radwanski mandate review of 1992 explains this very well,and the points made then are still valid today.”…so says been there, doing that.
Privatization could do that in a heart beat. My guess is, there isn’t a place in Canada today that you can’t buy a can of Coca Cola.
No,Walter,they aren’t happy with their Union dues going to support Palestinians or schools in Cuba.
But there isn’t anything they can do about it. And they aren’t complaining about their job,they just do it.
Why should they look elsewhere,they have good careers and keep fit,with a modest pension at the end? They do their job, earn their pay, just like most people in this world.
Maybe you SHOULD inherit Slater’s brain,Walter, you seem to have the same ability to think rationally about any given subject.
Did you,or Slater even read my first post? It had nothing to do with anything BUT my wish that however it turns out with selling Canada Post, my brothers will do alright. But Slater had to go off on a rant about “fat and lazy” and “condos and yachts”, like he always does when his meds are wearing off.
And as the old saying goes, before you criticize someone, walk a few thousand miles in their shoes,as my brothers do,without complaint, every year.
In the meantime, both you and Slater should take a reading comprehension course.
LAS >>> ” That I have some moral obligation to kneel before a government monopoly and its lousy service so some hick in podunk nowhere can get (supposedly) cheaper mail? ”
Joey >>> ” Privatization could do that in a heart beat. My guess is, there isn’t a place in Canada today that you can’t buy a can of Coca Cola.”
LAS,perhaps you do not understand the purpose of a gov’t mandate. Replace “some hick in Podunk” with “a native women in NWT” and ” cheaper mail” with affordable health care”.
Is it becoming clearer? That is what a gov’t mandate does. If you want to argue the reasons that we are taxed,lets do it.I don’t think abortion or Chief Spence’s salary should come out of my pocket. Your move.
Joey. You are partially right. There is likely very few places in Canada that you cannot purchase a Coke. But,Coca-Cola is a private corporation and the cost in smaller communities is higher than in the cities. That is privatization.
I’m OK with that.But why should the residents of northern communities pay less taxes than I. Well,because we subsidize the higher cost of living.
What do you think our gov’t(taxes) should cover? My reply to the misguided communist applies to your argument also.
The Post Office makes money. That is a huge plus,especially for a crown corp.
Take off your summer toques,put down the pitchforks,and try thinking before reacting.
” I don’t think we’d spend more on postage than we have in the past – we fax as much as we can to governments (gives us a confirmation) and we mail very little of the rest. If I had to guess, I would say it might be cheaper for us to send mail because most of ours would then be local.”
Sounds reasonable. Therefore if Canada Post is making money,not losing money as reported,you don’t have a problem with it. Right???
Read my comment at 3:27 p.m.,that is the truth. The media is lying to you,what a shocker.
I follow this subject. I have heard at least a dozen different newscasts about the subject. NOT ONE has mentioned the EXTREME capital expenditures over the last 2 years. Why would that be?
Well, postage SHOULD be more expensive in communities that are difficult to get to. Just like everything else is. However, I would wager than a small entrepreneur in these areas would be able to easily outperform Canada Post. EASILY. Time to dump this dinosaur…..like has happened in many countries around the world. Too bad Canada has waited so long because like phone booths, more value is lost every day we hold onto this unionized pig.
As for a can of Coke, I bought cans of Coke in Abu Simbel, Egypt a few years ago for about the same price I get one down at the corner store here.
As a CP employee and currently a Letter Carrier, I’m not surprised by some of the ignorant and uninformed comments. I’ll leave it at that.
Canada Post is not making money….it is running a huge deficit in terms of pension….which taxpayers will get stuck with eventually. Dump this pig.
“Ignorant and uninformed”….spoken like a know-it-all CUPW clown. Canada Post is going down….like most postal services around the world. They are being privatized around the world and the costs are going down and the service is going up. As Captain Capitalism is fond of saying….”Enjoy the Decline”, Comrade.
Andrew Coyne is SO BORING. I mean COME ON.. Canada Post privatization? ZZzzZZz..
Much more interesting would be the intrepid Coyne reporting from the Syrian front lines.
“Canada Post has also been a victim of affirmative action hiring,and this may be one reason the service has gone downhill.”
That appears to be the plight of those of us in our neighbourhood: letter carriers who don’t know what the hell they’re doing and who, possibly, can’t even read English.
For over a year, we’ve got neighbours’ mail in our clearly marked box; neighbours have got our mail, clearly marked with our address, which we’ve found on our doorstep because, fortunately, they had the courtesy to deliver it to us. God knows how much mail we’ve never received because of neighbours who have no idea that it’s a federal offense to throw mail away. Many of our neighbours have the same complaint, and I’ve often hand-delivered mail wrongly delivered to us to the proper address.
I’ve complained to all of the proper authorities, which have directed me up the line, I’ve spoken to the (dense) “manager” at the sorting depot for my neighbourhood, and have, finally, been told by someone in the Canada Post complaints department that she’s very sorry but there is nothing more that “they” can do about the lousy delivery in our ‘hood.
So, I guess the only option that makes sense, as secure and regular delivery of mail is guaranteed to Canadians — both guarantees a joke in my case — is privatizing the beast.
My sense is, that affirmative action and an entitled union mentality — I get paid whether I do my job properly or not — are the culprits. Mail delivery is too important to be hijacked by affirmative action employees and/or entitled unionists who could care less whether or not they perform their duties diligently and intelligently. I’ve thought of contacting my MP but it’s Olivia Chow and I’m pretty sure I know whose side she’ll be on.
I’m still waiting for a number of items I’ve been expecting in the mail …
agreed mailmen making $50,000 a year for what is essentially a paper route.
Actually, it’s even worse than that…..they mostly deliver flyers. Canada Post and CUPW stole flyer routes from small kids trying to make a few bucks.
Capital expenditures don’t fully hit the bottom line in the year that they are done. This is probably why no news report has mentioned it, other than the fact that no CP employee has brought it up to them as well.
As for your comments that I should have no problem if CP makes a profit, I have no problem with any corporation making money legitimately. If they are making money to reinvest in equipment and efficiency, you’re never going to hear an argument from me, even if it’s a Crown Corporation. The problem I have is when the corporation operates a monopoly (and a dying one at that) and doesn’t reinvest that money into its operations or service. I get annoyed when I hear anecdotes from the local post office employees about how the boxes in the post office get their mail more days than residences (even though I have next to nothing for first class mail coming to the house). I have a problem when mail service is interrupted because CUPW thinks it can hold a government ransom. And I have a problem with being told that a monopoly is more efficient, when I know that there are 4 courier companies in town that would likely be happy to serve a regular mail service.
I go back to my original point – that with the amount of bulk mail and 2nd class that moves through the mail, Canada Post could take the page out of the newspapers and flyer deliverers of the past who run routes of about 7-10 blocks and paid kids to make deliveries. It would be cheaper, and it might actually end up being better service.
Once more the little guy is being blamed for something the system has created. A lot of comments are implying that the letter carriers should say “No thanks, I’ll work for minimum wage or give my route to my son.” Any job that I have done always had supporting a wife and kids financially in the equation. Not being financially independent means that I do what I must to survive. And yes, I did two part time jobs when I was a corporal back in the day. The post industry has changed a lot in the last while and somewhere they have to adapt or die. Ever post a parcel lately? Only a buck or so lower than a courier and no guarantee it ever gets there. You have to be competitive or lose in any enterprise. Had a parcel sent to Calgary from Halifax. Tracked it right to the delivery truck then it mysteriously ended up back in Halifax with return postage due. Looks like the delivery guy (generic here) lost the address label and sent it back to me and they had the nerve to charge me for their screw up. No wonder I go Fedex now.
So the unions provide a veneer of job security and in exchange are given license to hold Canadians hostage twice over. Once, whenever they feel like going on strike they put their greed over public interest. Second, with their domestic and international political involvement they subvert the democratic process.
People who receive more than 40% of their income from the government (including crown corporations) should not be allowed to vote.
oxygentax,you have valid points,unlike some.
Obviously,I am a postie. I’ve been doing it for over 20 years. I have never been a person that aligns with the union,I am more sympathetic to management,though both have asked me to join their cause.At times one or the other,or both despise me,c’est la vie.
The capital costs that I pointed out earlier have been in play for a couple of years. They are significant and do affect the bottom line. I don’t know when they are put on the books.
The reporting on this comes from Canada Post releases. The f’en union has been silent. I’ve said more here than they have on the subject. BTW,union members cannot e-mail their national office or their local offices. That would be too time-consuming to listen to them,they are busy elsewhere. Where,I don’t know.
The “postal transformation” is the biggest change and most costly that I have seen in my 22+ years.It will keep the PO in profit. The PO has returned a dividend to the gov’t for the past 15 years.That is profit. This year they may not,but you can still mail a letter from Vancouver to Come-by-Chance NFLD for about 60 cents and it will get there in three days,2 to St.John’s (97% of the time,a little longer if I’m your mailman). That is incredibly cheap and quick.
The ‘monopoly’ that is derided by many is necessary to provide uniform service at a uniform cost to all Canadians. The major cities could survive without a post office. We all could,the internet does a lot now. BUT,the telegraph was going to kill the Post Office,same with the telephone,same with the fax machine. But,it still exists and except for this financial blip,it has returned a profit on a regular basis. How many other crown corps can say that? The letter’ monopoly’ is the gravy of the PO. It,and the flyers,subsidize the smaller communities. The parcel service brings a lot in,but IMHO is over-priced.
If you want to kill the PO,then kill healthcare also. It is much cheaper to deliver knee surgery in Toronto than it is in Cochrane,Ontario. So let them eat cake and painkillers until they can make it to Toronto?
The PO is a necessary part of Canada.It is an easy target for both politicians and lazy journalists. Don’t be fooled.
What is this, the postal workers are complaining? That’s what they do.
You have a union, deal with it, it’s your problem and it’s your choice.
There are people, perhaps most, that will change a job if they don’t like the one they have, usually for the better.
One here complains about being on the job for 30 years and is hard done by. Well, is there somewhere somebody that made you do it? Maybe he wanted a safe job that he would not get fired from, suck it up. It was your number one choice, stop bloody complaining.
Just as an aside: had a neighbor postal delivery guy working for the Canada post. It matters not that people will not believe this, the guy was home at 10 am and in summer was soaking up the sun every day without worry in life.
Hey Lev.I like my job. I don’t like my union and I have tried to change it.You talking to me,I don’t see anyone else,you must be talking to me?
What is your point anyways? Does it upset you when your kid runs to the door yelling ‘daddy’ when the postie comes by?
” the guy was home at 10 am and in summer was soaking up the sun every day without worry in life.”
But he worked the midnight shift,sigh.
You baby talk is silly, though it is easy to understand since union gives lessons in bullsheet. What my son does or does not is nothing that is of your concern.
What a corporation does, how much it spends is not customer’s concern; they are looking for service not excuses.
The problem it becomes though when it is a government run corporation that knows it can suck money from the taxpayers. That is a big deal.
If somebody does not see a point, it then is understandable that somebody may work for a post office.
End of story.
But,the post office does make money. Read all my posts,or have someone read them to you.
I know it was a cheap shot about your kid. I never did your wife, she is not my type,it could have been a relief carrier though. I prefer my women to have some taste and common sense.
And a good night to you.Flamewars are not my style and I have a job in the morning.
“Does it upset you when your kid runs to the door yelling ‘daddy’ when the postie comes by?”
That joke is so old and stale it must have been delivered by Canada Post.
Just today, my 90 year old mother had a greeting card returned to her from Montmartre, Sk. Population 413. It was addressed as follows.
Mr. XXX XXXXX
General Delivery
Montmartre, Sk.
S0G-3M0
She had the correct name and the postal code, however no box number. When she phoned Canada post, they said they couldn`t give out box numbers of individuals. Yet Canada Post no longer accepts the name and ”General Delivery” on the front of the envelope as they had for decades. So where do you find the box number?
It appears their socialist brains are no longer functioning.
Of course Canada Post should be privatized, but it should not have a monopoly on first class letter delivery and the notion that sending a letter from anywhere to anywhere in the country should cost the same amount is and always has been ridiculous. So get rid of that too.
“Competition” is a more accurate word than “privatization”, and “freedom” is a more accurate word than “competition”.
The 407 wasn’t exactly “privatized” because it was always private and never part of the public road system. The major complaints have been heavy-handed enforcement against people who were billed directly because they didn’t have a transponder (or who did not even ever drive on the highway in a number of cases) and the fact that the government can withhold your driver’s license until you pay your fees. The former is allegedly being addressed by the corporation (the original complaints are of longstanding), while the second is an unwarranted privilege that never should have been granted in the first place, and should be rescinded. The 407 should take the laggards to small claims court, just like everybody else has to. The justice system is there for a reason, so let them use it.
Starting wage for a gov’t liquor store worker is 50% greater than that of my wife who has worked for a major retail outlet for five years.
I’d suggest that due to the product mix, she is more knowledgeable and offers her employer more value as an active sales person, than that of a liquor store employee.
Yet the argument of gov’t and their expensive employees is that the retail worker is underpaid, as opposed to they being overpaid. It’s not about what the market decides is a ‘fair and reasonable wage’ but about artificially enhancing the wages to what the public sector employer decides is a ‘living wage’. And we’re not even talking about enhanced benefits and comfy pensions.
And that certainly applies to postal workers.