ON THE OTHER HAND BUSINESS IS not my busi- ness. The eyes glaze over when the talk is of cost bene- fits, cost analyses, and simi- lar things privy only to accountants and other clever folk. But sometimes something pops up that makes even me take notice. And such a something is Canada Post and the antics thereof. We all know we pay too much for mail and that we are probably the only country in the civilized world where the peasants even have to pay tax on the humble stamp. But that’s not what's worrying the Collins cranium at the moment. It’s the matter of the the Post - Office’s being in private business. And using the taxpayers’. dough to kil] business. Like in the matter of delivering advertising flyers and stuff like that. Let me confess right away that there is a little axe-grinding going on here. The North Shore News delivers flyers. On the other hand, as it says af the top of this column, it isn't only the News that’s involved. Every paper in the country is. Well you might say, why shouldn't the Post Office deliver flyers? That way, we might not have to [ork out 43 cents for a stamp. Bad reasoning. When did the cost of anything put out by a Crown corporation ever go down? Look what's happened at B.C. Hydro in the past few years. Look what’s happened at the CBC (in spite of alleged cutbacks), Look what’s happened at the jolly old Canadian International Development Agency. otherwise known as CIDA. Did you know that CIDA, which is bankrolled by thee and me to the tune of a billion dollars a vear, has reportedly given the Canadian Wilderness Committee $300,000 3 over the last three years to help it fight Canadian logging practices? How’s that for messing in one's own nest? But I digress. In the case of Canada -Post, it’s not only a matter of competing, with private enterprise at the cost of private enterprise — making companies contribute to their own demise through their own tax dol- lars, that is. it’s a matter of arrogance. And secrecy. : Canada Post should be publicly accountable for its policies, But it is not, even though it was supposed to be. / Ken Epp is the Reform party critic for Government Opcrations and Public Works, and only last month he was explaining that he had got nowhere as far as making the Post Office produce facts was concerned, “We want to know what the $282 million entry for ‘restructur- ing’ in their annual report is all about.” he declared. “Our suspicion is that this is where they are hiding their losses in the courier and unad- dressed mail departments.” If Epp’s guess is correct, it means Canada Post is running its Junk mail and flyer business at a loss, even though the corporation is subsidized. And he's not the only one who thinks that. Everyone in the business does. The fate Chuck Cook also tried his hand at making Canada Post cough up some info. He wanted to know what their costs were in the flyer and junk mail business. The arrogant answer was that their costs were a secret. In other words, get stuffed, Mr. MP, You are a nobody. Details might be embarrassing. Once Canada Post has put its competition out on the street, com- plete with begging bowl, it can then up its prices to the advertisers. No, you may say, because the newspapers will then get the busi- ness back. Not if they have gone bankrupt. And that could very well apply in the case of many of the smaller ones. Then there's the question of government morality, if the use of such a word in relation to govern- ment doesn't make you laugh too much. The cardinal point is: should the The Post Office be using public funds to fight private business? And don't think it isnt being aggressive, or that we're talking about some side- show. It isn’t the posties who are delivering this “mail.” It's specially recruited personne! called “admail workers,” a new category of the Canadian Union of Postal workers. When will Ottawa ever get its act straight? 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