Thank you, Mr. Speaker. People of the North and other rural and remote communities have long relied on mail orders to get necessities
like clothing or furniture that are so readily available in cities down south.
Programs like Food Mail have helped quite a bit, but we need to look at ways to generally reduce shipping costs to northern communities. On-line services have made goods even more available in remote communities, where people can buy things they would never have known about in the days of the mail order catalogue. However, shipping costs can easily double the price of these items, making them totally unaffordable. Many automated systems fly XOE postal code as isolated. As a result, some retailers are unwilling to ship to the Northwest Territories even if a community is on the highway system.
We pay more for freight than any other areas of Canada, and we have less service from the rest of Canada. Delivery takes longer. Postal rates continue to climb. Remember when it only cost 30 cents to send a letter or a birthday card? Now it is 51 cents just between Fort Providence and Yellowknife or anywhere else in Canada. If you are sending something to the States or overseas or anything bigger than 30 grams, you will pay more than a dollar. Parcels are even worse. I looked into sending a large 30 kg package, the maximum size you can send from Edmonton to Fort Providence. I paid a base rate of $62.29, fuel and oversize surcharge and tax, for a total of $81.30. If I sent the same parcel with guaranteed delivery via Express or Priority Post it would cost me as much as $218. I could buy a plane ticket to Edmonton for less.
In Fort Providence we are fortunate to be on the road system and people can drive to Yellowknife or cities in the South to purchase furnishings or other goods. Yet trucks go right past Deh Cho communities and we’re still charged additional shipping fees.
As a recent example, to ship two cases of ice back from a remote town in Ontario to anywhere else in Canada costs $40. To send a similar shipment from Fort Providence it will cost a steep $250. Most goods are transported by truck to communities on our road systems and it may be possible to take advantage of shipments going to the towns or the highway systems. We could look at ways to formalize a process with local businesses in trucking or large companies, so that people can take advantage of any extra space.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted