Vol. 143, No. 26 — June 27, 2009

Regulations Amending the International Letter-post Items Regulations

Statutory authority

Canada Post Corporation Act

Sponsoring agency

Canada Post Corporation

REGULATORY IMPACT
ANALYSIS STATEMENT

(This statement is not part of the Regulations.)

Issue and objectives

These proposed amendments to the International Letter-post Items Regulations, made under the Canada Post Corporation Act, would increase the rates of postage for letter-post items destined for the United States and other international destinations, effective January 11, 2010.

Description and rationale

The Canada Post Corporation Act requires Canada Post to conduct its operations on a financially self-sustaining basis and offer postal services to Canadians across the country. Canada Post is facing a number of pressures that are threatening its ability to remain self-sustaining. These include increasing costs of operations, declining mail volumes and the uncertainty caused by the economic downturn that began in 2008. At the same time the Corporation is undergoing a significant infrastructure renewal to bring its network up to modern standards.

Terminal dues account for approximately 60% of U.S. and international mail costs. Terminal dues are a pricing mechanism that allows the postal administration receiving the mail for delivery to collect for the cost of delivery from the postal administration sending the mail (in this case, Canada Post). Terminal dues to the United States are increasing by 2.8% in 2009, while terminal dues to other countries are increasing by 1.3%. Canada Post’s other costs are expected to increase by 3.5% for labour and 4.1% for non-labour elements in 2010. The proposed price adjustments take into consideration these increased operating costs.

Even with the proposed price increases, Canada Post’s U.S. and international basic letter-post rates will continue to be among the lowest in the world, when compared to the rates charged by other major industrialized nations for mail sent to Canada.

The new rates will directly contribute to Canada Post’s financial integrity and consequently, its ability to make future investments to maintain an accessible, affordable and efficient postal service.

The current rates and proposed rate increases are as follows:

U.S. letter-post	2009 Rate	Proposed 2010 Rate
Standard 30 g or less	$0.98	$1.00
More than 30 g but not more than 50 g	$1.18	$1.22
Oversize 100 g or less	$1.96	$2.00
Oversize more than 100 g but not more than 200 g	$3.40	$3.50
Oversize more than 200 g but not more than 500 g	$6.80	$7.00
International letter-post
Standard mail 30 g or less	$1.65	$1.70
Standard mail more than 30 g but not more than 50 g	$2.36	$2.44
Oversize 100 g or less	$3.90	$4.00
Oversize more than 100 g but not more than 200 g	$6.80	$7.00
Oversize more than 200 g but not more than 500 g	$13.60	$14.00

The proposed increases represent a weighted average increase of 2.6%.

Consultation

The Canada Post Corporation Act requires a consultation period through publication of the regulatory proposal in the Canada Gazette. All representations must be sent to the Minister of Transport. The representations will be taken into consideration in the preparation of the final proposal.

Implementation and enforcement

These Regulations are enforced by Canada Post under the Canada Post Corporation Act. No increase in the cost of enforcement is expected as a result of the proposed changes.

The new rates would come into effect on January 11, 2010.

Contact

Georgette Mueller
Director
Regulatory Affairs
Canada Post Corporation
2701 Riverside Drive, Suite N0980C
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0B1
Telephone: 613-734-7576
Fax: 613-734-8245
Email: georgette.mueller@canadapost.ca

PROPOSED REGULATORY TEXT

Notice is hereby given, pursuant to subsection 20(1) of the Canada Post Corporation Act (see footnote a), that the Canada Post Corporation, pursuant to subsection 19(1) (see footnote b) of that Act, proposes to make the annexed Regulations Amending the International Letter-post Items Regulations.

Interested persons may make representations with respect to the proposed Regulations within 60 days after the date of publication of this notice. All such representations must cite the Canada Gazette, Part I, and the date of publication of this notice, and be addressed to the Minister of Transport, House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6.

Ottawa, June 27, 2009

CANADA POST CORPORATION

REGULATIONS AMENDING THE INTERNATIONAL LETTER-POST ITEMS REGULATIONS

AMENDMENT

1. The portion of item 1 of Schedule IV to the International Letter-post Items Regulations (see footnote 1) in column II is replaced by the following:

Item	Column II Rate per Item ($)
1.(a)(i)	30 g or less	1.00
	more than 30 g but not more than 50 g	1.22
(ii)	100 g or less	2.00
	more than 100 g but not more than 200 g	3.50
	more than 200 g but not more than 500 g	7.00
(b)(i)	30 g or less	1.70
	more than 30 g but not more than 50 g	2.44
(ii)	100 g or less	4.00
	more than 100 g but not more than 200 g	7.00
	more than 200 g but not more than 500 g	14.00

COMING INTO FORCE

2. These Regulations come into force on January 11, 2010.

[26-1-o]

Footnote a
R.S., c. C-10

Footnote b
S.C. 1992, c. 1, s. 34

Footnote 1
SOR/83-807

NOTICE:
The format of the electronic version of this issue of the Canada Gazette was modified in order to be compatible with extensible hypertext markup language (XHTML 1.0 Strict).