Newsroom - Letters to the Editor

September 24, 2007

(Letter to the editor of the National Post)

Comments made by Gwyneth Howell, executive director, Canadian International Mail Association in your September 17 Comment section, "Ottawa must deliver justice" are misleading.

The fact that Canadian companies have been providing international mailing services for more than 25 years does not make it legal. Canada Post tried for years to find a diplomatic solution to this illegal activity and finally resorted to successful legal action against remailers.

Justice MacFarland said in the May 8, 2007 Ontario Court of Appeal decision that Canada Post is required to provide mail service to all points in Canada, however remote, at reasonable cost, but in a financially viable way. The ruling also pointed out that remailers focus on the largest corporate and institutional mailers in Canada, who reside in the more densely populated and easily serviceable areas of the country. They do not serve the more remote areas of Canada where the costs are high in relation to the revenue generated.

Remailers collect large quantities of mail in Canada and induct it into the postal system of a foreign postal administration which costs Canada Post between $48 million and $80 million annually in lost revenue. The use of remailer services for exclusive privilege items makes it more difficult, if not impossible, for Canada Post to enforce its statutory mandate as set out by Parliament in the Canada Post Corporation Act.

Canada Post competes with numerous legitimate competitors daily but will continue to aggressively defend its business against companies that profit from illegal activity at the expense of the corporation.

Sincerely,

John Caines
National Media Relations, Ottawa
613-734-7675
john.caines@canadapost.ca