Are Our Rural Post Offices Safe?
HUGHES SEEKS GUARANTEES FOR RURAL POST OFFICES AS BUDGET PASSES FINAL VOTE IN COMMONS
Ottawa – Revenue from Canadian mail headed overseas will not be contributing to Canada Post coffers and adds to the endangerment of local postal service in Canada’s smaller communities according to Carol Hughes.
During debate on the budget yesterday, Hughes asked if the government could guarantee rural service in light of the impending lost revenue.
“Can the member guarantee me that none of the post offices, especially those in rural areas, will see any closures because of the changes that the government is making in this bill?, said Hughes.
New Democrats have been focussed in their attempt to strip the non-budgetary items from the bill in order to better debate the effects of policy items.
“We have criticism of these individual items as well as the budget,” said Hughes. “They are ramming all kinds of things through in a budget document because they know that Canadians would not support their direction on an item-by-item basis.”
In the end, there were no assurances available to Hughes, or her constituents, that rural post offices will be spared when Canada Post comes to terms with the reduced revenue stream this policy will ensure.
The budget bill remained intact when New Democrat attempts to hive-off non-budgetary items were stopped by the Liberal caucus who voted with the Conservatives to kill the amendments late last week.
Despite their supposed opposition to the budget, the Liberals refused to show up to vote in sufficient numbers and the budget passed its final hurdle in the House of Commons last night.
