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Topic: Privatize Canada Post, CD Howe says
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Fidel
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 5594
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posted 13 February 2007 03:44 PM
Privatizing Canada Post would improve 'anachronistic' mail carrier: Study quote: John Caines, a spokesman for Canada Post, said the Crown corporation has been profitable for the past 11 years, and was a leader in launching online bill payment technology. "Our service is good now," Caines said. "We're performing our letter mail at about 96 to 97 per cent on time. ... We think we're providing a good service. If privatization would improve on that, who knows?"
I thought CD Howe was supposed to have been a Liberal not a right-wing ideologue. Hmmm, CP is profitable, and the service is pretty good. So why fix what isn't broken ?. [ 13 February 2007: Message edited by: Fidel ]
From: Viva La Revolución | Registered: Apr 2004
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Fidel
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 5594
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posted 13 February 2007 05:46 PM
You were close, arborman. And we do still need to find out if donations to the Howe are considered charitable and tax refundable by the feds. I think you may be on to something there. quote: In 2000, the Canadian branch of UPS sued the federal government for about $230 million, claiming Ottawa has failed to regulate Canada Post, thus giving it an unfair advantage over private competitors. UPS alleges the Crown corporation uses its retail outlets, collection boxes and sorting facilities to give unfair market advantages to its courier services. The decision is in the hands of a tribunal.
The efficiency experts are on the job again. I guess the Howe isn't choosing to notice that with all this privatization that's happened already in Canada, our productivity hasn't improved significantly in Canadian manufacturing. In fact, we're falling behind the Yanks now since NAFTA. And, I've read that not all Canadian physicians are adept at using electronic health record systems yet. And we can bet that some Canadian hospitals aren't as high tech as some private hospitals in the U.S. But Canadians are still living longer on average. The cases they make for privatizing profits and socializing risk are so unconvincing. It's like the propaganda campaigns that discover publicly owned liquor and beer stores in Central Canada that just don't have that exotic microbrew stocked that's only really available in Vienna or Vancouver anyway. We have to understand that things could be better with private interests helping themselves to millions of dollars of revenues instead of our oppressive, democratically-elected governments who would only plow the windfalls back into public services anyway. We're oppressed and we don't even know it. [ 13 February 2007: Message edited by: Fidel ]
From: Viva La Revolución | Registered: Apr 2004
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Sean Cain
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 3502
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posted 13 February 2007 07:37 PM
Privatize Canada Post? Great idea.Just look at what privatization did for the airline industry throughout Canada, the railways in Britain, Ontario Hydro, electricity in California, and Highway 407 in the Greater Toronto Area. Let the success stories continue... On a more serious note, isn't C.D. Howe the same "research" institute that said high interest rates wouldn't increase public debt or unemployment, and that free trade would create jobs in Canada and narrow the productivity gap between us and the Americans? I rest my case.
From: Oakville, Ont. | Registered: Dec 2002
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Palamedes
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 13677
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posted 14 February 2007 11:52 AM
I'm all for allowing the free market to compete, but I see no reason why government shouldn't have its own company competing alongside.It seems to me that our 'inefficient' government is able to provide low-cost service, while paying the employees well. I'm not sure what would be gained by privatizing Canada Post - aside from handing over money to private companies who could then raise the prices on us all. Are there any restrictions on what Private enterprise can do, when it comes to delivering mail?
From: Toronto | Registered: Dec 2006
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