CUPW seeks meeting with new Federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault
In early November, CUPW wrote Steven Guilbeault, the newly appointed federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change, to request a meeting to discuss Delivering Community Power and the potential for Canada Post to become a leader in the new green economy. As many are aware, two key parts of CUPW’s Delivering Community Power campaign include the electrification of the postal vehicle fleet and the building of public electric vehicle charging stations at post offices. We feel the post office can play a key role towards achieving Canada’s requirement that all new passenger vehicles sold must be zero-emission by 2035. The full contents of the letter are reproduced below.
Tuesday November 9, 2021
Hon. Steven Guilbeault
Minister of Environment and Climate Change
107 Catherine Street (Main Office)
Ottawa, ON
K2P 0P4
Dear Mr. Guilbeault,
We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your appointment as Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Your background as an advocate in the fight against the climate crisis makes clear your strong commitment to the future of our country and our planet.
We hope that you will use your knowledge of the green and social economy, and the transportation industry to help advance our objectives of reducing greenhouse gas emissions at Canada Post. We would also like to request a meeting to discuss how we at the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) can help in reducing emissions and further the Canadian climate agenda.
For many years CUPW has been active in promoting collaboration with Canada Post Corporation on expanding services and on climate and environment related actions. As part of our Delivering Community Power campaign, we have long been advocating for creating industry-changing solutions to fight climate change and to change the status quo for the betterment of our planet. As one of the country’s largest publicly-owned corporations, Canada Post has the capacity to lead the way in emissions reductions and creating good green manufacturing jobs by leveraging its huge fleet, buildings and assets.
One of the major steps forward in the past year is that CUPW now sits on a joint environment committee with Canada Post, the Association of Postal Officials of Canada (APOC), and the Union of Postal Communications Employees-Public Service Alliance of Canada (UPCE-PSAC). In sitting on this committee, CUPW is working towards climate and environmental solutions in collaboration with Canada Post and fellow unions, and the committee is producing tangible results like the jointly produced Environmental Action Plan and the Sustainable Action Fund.
There is no doubt that electric vehicles are the way of the future, especially given the Government of Canada’s mandate requiring 100% of car and passenger truck sales be zero-emission by 2035. This is an important step forward, as Canada lags behind other countries in electric vehicle adoption. CUPW’s objective is to help make the necessary changes to the Canada’s largest fleet – the postal fleet – and to prioritize an electric vehicle charging infrastructure plan.
One important barrier to widespread adoption of EVs is a lack of consumer confidence in the availability of public charging stations. With more post offices than there are Tim Horton’s across the country, we can break down the barrier to EV adoption by installing public charging stations at every Canada Post office. Canada Post offices have the potential to become hubs of the new green economy.
We look forward to meeting with you in the future in order to continue moving our objectives forward and generate some real tangible results, which could benefit everyone across the country for generations to come.
Sincerely,
Jan Simpson
National President
Cc: National Executive Board