Last week, Mark Carney declared the post office “not viable,” and announced plans to cut door-to-door delivery.
The government intends to replace postal workers with community mailboxes, speed up deliveries through subcontracted gig labour, and quietly hand over profitable routes to private couriers.
And yet a renewed Canada Post, harnessing its crucial public infrastructure, is a textbook example of the kind of “nation-building” project Mark Carney claims he wants to champion.
As postal workers walked off the job last week in protest of his plans, media headlines obsessed over deficits and delays, leaving out the bigger story: who is profiting from the disruption—and who is paying the price.
That context is crucial: billionaires stand to gain enormously from gutting Canada Post, and their hidden role is shaping the entire fight.
Door-to-door delivery is actually in higher demand than ever. But this essential service is increasingly handled by hyper-exploited workers rather than postal workers. They labour for mega-corporations like Amazon and other union-busting tech firms, driving around in polluting vehicles and adding to congestion as countless fly-by-night subcontractors race to squeeze every last ounce of speed from their burnout-bound workers.
Trump-backing billionaires like Jeff Bezos are raking in enormous profits from this mistreatment of workers—profits extracted at the expense of commute times, bike lanes, and the environment. At the same time, government officials solemnly declare that Canada Post must scale back door-to-door service and cut rural post offices.
But while billionaires and their political allies push privatization, Canada Post holds the tools to do something far more ambitious. Beyond delivering letters and parcels, it could become a hub for community services, a source of local economic empowerment, and a model for public infrastructure that meets the needs of Canadians rather than shareholders.
Pay no attention to the billionaires behind the curtain
All this union busting, polluting and street-clogging is concealed inside a veritable Matryoshka doll of performance-based subcontracting relationships. Rather than hire employees and risk the possibility that they might unionize or demand basic rights, companies like Intelcom (which delivers a significant portion of Amazon’s packages in Canada) hire unnamed firms run by opportunistic entrepreneurs.
These firms may even subcontract to individuals on a per-parcel payment scheme. The result: people whose livelihoods depend on rushing around, jeopardizing not only their own safety but also that of the neighbourhoods they serve.
Amazon’s model isn’t just replacing postal jobs with underpaid gig work; it’s setting a new floor for the entire industry. By pushing wages down, normalizing algorithmic surveillance, and treating workers as disposable, Amazon forces competitors to mimic its tactics just to survive. When the government frames the issue as making Canada Post “competitive,” it’s really saying postal workers should endure the same speed-ups, precarity, and union-busting that define Amazon’s operations.
Media outlets and commentators, meanwhile, are playing stenographer to the supposedly sober assessments of Canada Post’s viability as a business. A recent CBC panel concluded that the union can’t win a debate about the financial future of Canada Post. Perhaps. But these same observers are helping obscure the players who stand to benefit from the government’s anti-worker offensive.
Pay no attention to the Bezos vassals hiding in plain sight! Don’t mention their close links to the Liberal Party! This seems to be the credo of journalists and commentators covering Canada Post.
You don’t even have to crack the lobbyist registry to see what’s going on. Intelcom, for instance, is headed by “Minister of Innovation” Mélanie Joly’s brother, Jean-Sébastien Joly. The Liberal Party’s alliance with union-busting the postal services is literally, in this case, a family affair.
But the double-teaming of postal workers by the two Jolys is hardly an exception. A quick look at the registry reveals lobbying of the government from delivery services like UPS, retail giant Amazon, private logistics firm Pitney Bowes, and several banks (more on that in a second). Our supposedly declining postal service is attracting a great deal of attention from corporate lobbyists.
To justify its accelerated de facto privatization program, the government is fond of saying that Canada Post is “losing $10 million per day.” This claim is dubious on its face, based on a year defined by unresolved labour disputes and large one-time costs. More telling is the double standard: no other public service is evaluated this way. How much, for example, does the Canadian military “lose” per day? The answer: $169 million.
Should we accept the short-sighted and somewhat absurd proposition that the value of universal postal infrastructure is limited to its ability to earn a profit? Of course not. But even if we did, the notion that Canada Post could be made viable by retreating from unimaginably profitable parts of the economy—while sacrificing accessibility for Canadians—is equally ridiculous.
As postal workers face down a government in league with the worst abusers of labour and the environment, it may be the visibility of these connections to billionaires that determines whether this priceless public service survives. Needless to say, in the high-stakes strike that began Friday, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers deserves our support.
To get to Canada Post’s bright future, we must travel the last mile
As corporate media outlets dutifully echo the government’s talking points about a postal service in need of de facto privatization, the innovative proposals that government-appointed managers have ignored for years get too little attention.
Postal workers are among the most attuned to Canada Post’s need to adapt. Walking between houses or on breaks from sorting packages and letters, they have generated plenty of bright ideas. Under the banner of Delivering Community Power, they collected some of the best of these proposals.
They didn’t just put these proposals on paper; they ran a national campaign, staging vibrant actions at post offices across the country to help imagine the post office of the future.
A few of their proposals, covered in more depth in The Breach last year, include postal banking, power generation and rural charging stations, checking in on seniors living at home, and turning post offices into community hubs for the delivery of public services.
Postal banking is perhaps the clearest example of how Canada Post could secure new revenue while serving unmet public needs. Yet both Liberal and Conservative governments have refused to greenlight it, fearing a confrontation with Canada’s big banks.
If Mark Carney was serious about investing in nation-building, these are precisely the kinds of proposals he would embrace. Instead, we get the same tired program of union-busting.
The best way to save Canada Post is simply to enforce basic labour standards, environmental limits, and safety regulations on the rogue fleet of sub-sub contractors with Liberal ties. But that approach would require the kind of approach Liberal governments specialize in watering down until the reforms are effectively meaningless.
And there’s another element of their bold proposals that cut to the core of the government’s current attack, and it poses the biggest challenge yet to the business model of the American billionaires’ Canadian vassals.
Giving Canada Post a monopoly on last-mile deliveries, coupled with good wages for workers, would enforce labour standards, reduce congestion, improve neighbourhood safety, and redistribute the unearned wealth of American robber-barons.
It would also mean a direct confrontation with some of the biggest political machines in Canada. But once they are seen for who they really are, we may find they are not as powerful as they seem.
The Breach’s investigations don’t just inform our readers—they force the powerful to react.
An exposé on blood plasma privatization led to national headlines. Our revelations about the government’s cozy connections to Big Pharma sparked a parliamentary probe. A report on high-tech price-fixing by mega landlords resulted in a criminal investigation.
From activists to elected officials, people are using The Breach’s journalism to push for transformative change.
– Dru Oja Jay, Board President, The Breach
Labour | Government is suppressing postal workers. It should be learning from their innovative ideas
Labour | Postal workers are fighting the gigification of a vital public service
Workers' Rights | As cost of living soars for all, federal workers are fighting back
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I support the Postal Services we need this delivery a mandatory law for BC Canadians! Plus, Canada Post fairness should be a Right not a political gain!
Excellent stuff! Postal Banking would be a true nation building project; one that wouldn’t require any extraction or infringe on anyone’s treaty rights. If it was publicly owned, excess revenues could be reinvested and cross subsidize things like healthcare, education, seniors supports – you name it! Profits for the people, not the billionaire class!
I work for the post office and fully support my union and the delivering community power campaign. I know my customers and this work make all the difference. Being a community hub (I am in a small office) would be a great service and one that would thrive.
From the ground up! That’s the way it should be. Let’s get back to work and be a public post office for all! Good jobs for a great Canada, coast to coast to coast 🇨🇦
Lulz for the “about to be disbanked” maybe .. I don’t want unionized workers dealing with my money.
Well Said!
I would also like to see enacted a gov’t policy to force online sellers to give buyers a choice in who gets to deliver our packages. Right now I have to wait to see who’s delivering. These terrible small delivery services don’t read instructions; leave the package out in the open even when I’m home and don’t even knock at my door. Extremely bad service in some cases and I’m not given an option.
Funny that’s my feeling of Canada post, expensive limited service .
100%! I don’t want gig workers to be responsible for important docs like passports, nor for my needed parcels.
This. I had someone, who was in such a rush to deliver their packages, throw my parcel to my doorstep from the end of my driveway. When it hit my front door, I thought someone was trying to break into my home. I would take a slower service any day if it ensured my packages (and my home) were treated with care.
Times have changed, post office hasn’t kept pace. Expensive and slow, I’ve had multiple shipments disappear. Taxpayers have had enough.
I’m sorry – it’s like you’re completely passing over the hell these Canada Post workers have put the rest of the Canadian’s through the last year few years. As a Canadian who uses Canada Post frequently for work, I’m outraged anyone feels this way at all. Blaming Liberals? Really? That is you’re core argument? Reality is, over the past 2-3 years, Canada Post is EXTREMELY slow and their losing package rate is absolutely through the roof. Incredibly unreliable, constantly on strike which forces small businesses to use other more expensive services like Purolator – which is owned by Canada Post so at the end of the day these mail workers are actually just driving up revenues for Canada Post – not to mention the millions of dollars they are costing the tax payers and the continued headaches we all have to deal with because of their shenanigans.
We live in Canada, if you do not like your pay, your job conditions, your route, whatever it may be, you are free to find a new job. Throwing a tantrum so the rest of the population has to deal with your unhappiness for a multi-year period is simply unacceptable. I don’t have the freedom to walk out of my job because I’m unhappy with my pay and work conditions, I would need to quit and find another job – what makes me these Canada Post workers so special that they get to do so while costing tax payers time, money and headache? The tax payer has zero say in your job conditions or wages, but at the end of the day, we are the ones that suffer from the strikes – not Canada Post.
People don’t seem to realize that workers who have stable jobs, fair wages, manageable workloads and respect will be better employees, delivering satisfactory outcomes and staying in their jobs. Unions were formed a century ago to ensure fair wages and hours, vacations and benefits. When they were dismantled and workers overburdened and overworked, mostly starting in the Mulroney times and continued under Martin, the standards of living dropped for the majority of workers while the rich got richer and paid less and less tax. Canada Post has been gutted and all these commenters are blaming the wrong culprits. Tax the wealthy. End gig jobs. Respect all workers.
FYI, Canada post is not run by taxpayers’ money!
Mr. Steve King. Show me where your taxes are supporting Canada Post. You are clearly mistaken. I don’t know where you live, but in my area Canada Post delivers next day. When you say “taxpayers”, speak for yourself please.
Canada Post was profitable for decades before the Trudeau era. It doesn’t need to be the way it is now. Corrupt management and intentional demise led to this situation.
The objective of 45 years of neoliberalism is privatize all services and government assets, Reaganomics/Thatcherism.
I believe Canada Post needs a new vision but not 60,000 employees. COVID killed it. It was profitable prior, but our society has changed, Evole to serve rural Canada with 1st class service and survive, smaller and better. 75 % of Canadians use Community boxes.
I only check my mail every 2-3 weeks, and throw out the Canadian tire flyers, that’s legitimately all I get, and I don’t want them, I got one letter the last two years, and they also emailed me, post offices are done, I don’t need mail services, save the billion dollars a year they lose, and put it on something more important and necessary
So your saying let’s get rid of the military they lose 169 million. Just get rid of all the government services that lose money. Until recently Canadapost made profit to help fund these services. No one complained or even knew this. The public thinks Canadapost is publicly funded which it’s not the case.
Happy for you. There is more to Canada Post than flyers. There are remote communities that rely on them for food and other essentials. There are many areas that no other company delivers to. We NEED Canada Post.
For 2 months they send my mail in another town doesn’t matter how many time I complained didn’t change until got the guy who did that and scream at him it change they should privatize postal
I’m a letter carrier and we are also the watchers of the neighborhood we know what’s going on everyday . If something unusual happens we are the first ones to see it . Like said in the article this is a service not a profit .
A lot of strong opinions and not a lot of facts, pretty biased article. A lot of our postal workers are overpaid and under worked and the routes make no sense, it desperately needs a revamped logistics plan. I think community boxes are a great idea as there are exceptions for individuals but I do see the possibility of moving more of those package deliveries to private companies.
Canada Post workers are ridiculously overpaid and take advantage of Canadian tax payers. This is not sustainable. This whole article is such a bad take. Why are we not adapting to the times? These union workers and the leaders are afraid to lose their cushy benefits and salaries. Did you know they get paid the full 8 hour shift even if they finish it in a couple hours? It’s no wonder they’re losing billions. How many packages have they lost my small business? Because of these constant disruptions and whining, I’ve had to let people go and it’s destroyed my small business. My life has been completely ruined, as well as many others I employed. Disgusting. These people have no shame.
Defund all LGBTQ handouts. Take these billions and transform Canada Post while keeping tens of thousands Canadians across the country EMPLOYED.
This is not journalism it is blatant propaganda. I would prefer one day a week delivery. 3 months of holidays every year is too much for the taxpayer to be paying when most of use only get 2 weeks.
If you think this is handing some profits off to billionaires, I have a bridge to sell you.
I’m Liberal. I support this. Why? Because I don’t like the idea that $10 million dollars a day is lost in Canada Post. That’s $3 Billion taxpayer dollars wasted each year. I’m glad to let some private moron take the loss instead of Canadians. The service is already terrible.
Sounds like exactly what Trump is combating in the US. We need a leader of his calibre to protect postal workers as a business model
This article was a load of horse manure. Canada Post can not deliver parcels across Town in less than a week. Parcels, I could walk Canada faster
Canada post has purchased tens of thousands of new EV trucks and delivery trucks over the past 7 years. Add to that a new parcel processing plant 50 kms from the biggest one in canada post (mississauga) that cost over $500 million dollars. And every supervisor up to the CEO and Baord has recieved bonuses of up to 33%. Even as they brag about larger losses year over year.
But the reality is, they moved big customers to Purolator to sheild their interests to break the publics trust in the post office, and to show losses. Yet no journalists has found the 2018 move of the Department of Finance to allow canads post to stop working to make a profit, and to re-invest all monies into the business.
So, if they do get what they want, Canada Post will be privatized without a whimper from the public. And when the new owner shows how without change, it can be making hundreds of millions every year, it will be the tax payer that looses. All those capitol investments sold at pennies on the dollar. Those investments the tax payer funded.
How could anyone trust CPC to do anything right. Both Mgmt and the union are a complete failure to individual and commercial users. Strike strike strike lose lose money. Time to move on to a basic mail service that is user pay based.
Postal banking is not financially viable. If it is, Stephen Harper Conservative government, which drew a lot of support in the rural area, would have implement the postal banking a decade ago.
In Canada, postal service, especially parcel delivery, is very expensive when compared to the U.S. The author blindly blamed everything to gig economy and billionaires. Canada Post workers’ rigid work rules are something need to abolish in order for Canada Post to have any future.
BTW, every time a post worker strike, I made certain paper bill or communication e-mail only. Now, I only check mailbox bi-weekly. Why should Canadian support an institution which cost him/her $90+ in annual tax yet rarely use?
Postal banking would be wonderful! Finally ….. real journalism that tells the truth. Thank you 👍
This article is full of bogus. Canada Post should be able stand on its own, it has nothing to do with the billionaire bs of this article. The union asking for salary raises when the company is losing hundreds of millions of dollars per year is the exact reason something needs to change. Completely delusional.
I am quite tired of the rhetoric that Canada Post Mail is dead… The real parts of this that most people don’t understand is not just what Canada Post does but what industries it also keeps “alive”! Though many services are switching away from conventional means to digital, there are many services, that you cannot replicate or streamline. As the article pinpoints, letter carriers are a required job. You cannot digitally send/receive a physical item. Whether it be a Stuffed Animal or a Part for your broken dishwasher or even your Passport, YOU will require your physical item. How much are you willing to pay if ALL OF THIS is taken away. To cover such coats would only be pushed to third parties NOT willing to care for their workers or customers the way a systemized logistics machine like Canada Post could. FedEx sends one person to deliver an almost 200lbs exercise machine… I’m sure the buyer didn’t care to help, but the person is forced to do their job and delivers as carefully as possible (added they must do that 30-40 times a day). An Amazon delivery person has to get rid of over 1000-1300 parcels/packets a day and are tracked throughout their trips so they can expediently rush through their deliveries opening them to lost items, accidents, injuries, or in some cases life threatening situations.
I can go on about many things this article has already mentioned, but this is just my belief. If we don’t hold on to what one thing we have stable and control over. And let greed dictate our quality of Canadian Life… and let’s be real, there really is anything that’s out there tainted by greed any longer. That we can, as a people, dictate how we are served and that we control with our voices and returning it to its people.
If anyone out there can tell one service we have out there, I’m all ears. Take your time, I’m sure sure you’ll run through many industries and youll see them all tainted. I’ll get you started… Financial, Healthcare, Energy, Retail… Think before you destroy Canada Post.
Amazon has an independent infrastructure that services their own retail sales, and dose not contribute to Canada posts home delivery regardless. Half of this article is irrelevant ramblings you’d hear in a freshman dorm. If you’ve ever used express ship from Can post, you’d know they can’t be trusted to honor their commitments. They’re detrimental to any business that partners with them. If I see them listed as a shipping partner, I won’t order. The little you save partnering with them has never bin worth it if you do choose to over look their horrible service. Not to mention the workers at the office are consistently rude and unhelpful. This piece is incredibly bias in favour of a corporation you’ll call anything but what it really is. C. Post is a failing, for profit corporation that employs greedy, lazy people. They are the billionaires you speak of. Check the CEO and similar salaries, that we pay for out of billions dollar tax hand outs. They have been unreliable as long as they’ve existed and year after year, demand more, for less. I won’t pretend to know the solution but after a billion dollar bail out was thrown hand over first out the window at an astronomical loss of some 4 million CAD a day (?), it is hard to give them the benefit of a doubt.
Back in 1968, when I lived in Parry Sound, Ontario, we used to have two deliveries Mon-Fri and one morning delivery on Saturdays. In the 1990s here in Edmonton, the mail carrier carried two heavy bags and delivered letters and parcels on foot, rain, snow or shine. In the past few years we lost home deliveries, replaced by the stupid community mail boxes, some of them as far as 500 meters away from home, most times you risk walking through ice covered side walks to get the mail despite all mail carriers are supplied with a company van to travel and deliver. They are not highly skilled men and women, but receives up to $25-30 per hour day job with weekends and holidays off with pay. Having seen the functioning of Canada Post for well over half a century, I do not understand why the CUPW drags the workers on strike every year especially before Christmas. Last year it created such troubles across Canada, people were unable to send or receive cards and gifts to and from loved ones. The strike was over just before the New Year. But the damage was already done, losing gifts and cards. I received one of the cards sent from Ontario around mid December 8 weeks later in February 2025. The Union was clearly seeking empathy by using Canadians as a weapon.
Finally, there has yo be a law, like other essential services such as the military/ armed forces/ teachers/ hospitals/ doctors and nurses etc. Canada Post should not allow to strike. There are thousands of intelligent educated people across Canada are ready to work without making unusual demands and goes on strike for one reason or another.
What is next?
Do you think selling Petro Canada was in the best interest of Canadians?
Canada Post is cheaper than FedEx. I had to mail letters required the receiver’s signature, which costed me $35 with FedEx or $16 with Canada Post. The deliveries took same numbers of days, and was for Ontario to Ontario service. I bet there are other instances like this, too. A detailed study should be done.
Sorry if this offends anyone but we do not need door to door delivery. Once a week delivery to a community box is more than adequate. In the present system I get daily delivery of junk mail and flyers that goe directly into the garbage. The current postal system is not financially or environmentally sustainable. Lets go to superboxes and onceper week deliveries!
If inefficiency and cost are the driving factors to change Canada Post shouldn’t there be a move to privatize the federal government? It is inefficient, slow, and costs the taxpayers far more than the value of the service they provide.
Don’t let the government have no door to door service if they just put up mail boxes on every block no one would ever get their mail. Reason why I say this is because of the huge problem that we have here in Winnipeg is the drug users are going around breaking into ppls mailboxes and stealing their mail especially any sorta of checks. Like then we will have nothing. But if we keep door to door services then we can at least get our mail and we still have jobs for the future. Likeand we also have the safety of our security cameras on our property that catches thieves especially if their trying to steal our mail. I know this first hand! Like the criminal out there are getting smarter but more stupid than before, at least with Canada post if you don’t answer the door for your package they leave you a card to tell you where to pick up your package not like Amazon they take a picture of your package on your doorstep stating that they dropped off on your doorstep and drive away giving the rights for criminals to go steal it off their doorstep and go trade your items for drugs or cash. Like this about it STAY WITH CANADA POST
This article reeks of CUPW propaganda. Of the 5 comments, 2 (40%) indicate that Canada Post provides no discernable value in today’s digital age. Add my comment and it’s up to 50%.
1) Cease all mail delivery within cities and towns that have high speed Internet infrastructure.
2) Redirect the savings to providing high speed Internet infrastructure to remote areas.
3) Leave business deliveries to businesses. Taxpayers should not be subsidizing cheaper mail delivery services for Canadian businesses.
Canada’s dismal productivity trend will not be improved by supporting John’s or Jane’s wool blankets being sold on Etsy.
By their own reasoning we should eliminate door to door delivery. They accuse the other delivery companies of polluting the air driving around delivering packages. Wouldn’t it be better for the environment if they stopped delivering door to door?
Canada Post is a money sink, and let’s face it they are just useless nowadays. Good riddance. Fire all those lazy people.
I’d love to know how other countries handle mail… is there successes that we could learn from? What’s different about Canada’s system that makes it such a failure?
Mail services today are like copist monks faced to Guttenberg , they cannot understand how irrelevant they now are.
Please consider these great proposals put forth by the workers. Listen to them. They have the answers. I support the workers fully.
Postal service is necessary. Without it the private sector will become greedy and prices will soar. Many people still rely on it especially if one lives in a rural community where others won’t deliver to because it’s not profitable for them.
We should ar least require the delivery people to drive Canadian made low emission vehicles. This is disturbing about Jolys brother. Very disturbing…
Not sure such a biased editorial is reflective of the true intention of journalism. If the postal service had been owned by a Billionaire, you can rest assured they would have laid off 30% of the workforce by now, provided a much less lucrative benefit package and no company paid pension fund. Oh yeah, which is what we, the tax payers, are currently paying into. Times have changed, and to survive, Crown Corporations need to adapt to the times. I am not endorsing massive lay-offs, everyone deserves the right to work and earn a living, but rather it is time for a reality check. For example, industry would typically provide 2 to 3% per year merit pay increases, not the 4 to 5% CUPW presented. Sorry, but sometimes reality is hard to take. I hope that in the end both parties can resolve this with a reasonable compromise in a reasonable time frame.
“Trapped time” leads to inferior service.
The Union must be prepared to evolve the service, or the service dies. But they won’t, because this was never about “supporting Canadians”. It’s about greed for the Union as much as it is the billionaires.
Good thing they elected Carney, though. He’s legislated them back to work once already. Should be doing it again in three… two… one…
Why are the CP C EO’s not doing anything to correct the problems-address the issues! They just want to earn all the top wages while waiting for Government to intervene without full knowledge of the situation. Why doesn’t CPC listen to the union’s proposals-get rid of the CEO’s who are milking Can-Post-assign proper people to impose profitability procedures to make Can-Post a viable company and service to Canadians !
So. Mr. Carney isn’t the great saviour after all, and some of the most successful and mature economies of the west have postal banking. I get it and the point about the surge of political movement toward satisfying the greed of the already obscenely rich. It seems to boil down to a contest for access to the bountiful trough instead of the ‘nation building’ program it should be. The problem is we don’t know who or what else lies “..behind the curtain..”
I tend to agree with your article, it made a lot of sense, until you drug Donald Trump into your article, your TDS is showing
I support the Post Office
Why is no one talking about the 91% of PUROLATOR that it owns and transfers work from CP. It’s quite a coincidence that the losses per day that CP posts almost perfectly match the PROFITS that Purolator make. CP should sell it stake in Purolator and get back to running a viable business in Canada Post!
Union jobs are important in this soon to be crazier world . Im glad im not young anymore . ( never thought i would ever say that ) .
The Liberals like to define themselves as Centrist or CentreLeftist when the reality is that they have moved so far Right that have dislodged the Conservatives from their traditional RightWing position forcing them to become RightWingExtremist.
Let’s rally behind all democratic institutions that have distinguished Canada for many decades, like the Canada Post etc.
Once again our Canadian heritage is thrown away. Their is always a business profile that can be implemented to make money. Just have to listen to Carney how he’s saving Canada what a joke. Liberals are praying on the small minded selfish Canadians that reside here know. Open your eyes wake up
Canada Post as it is with everyday dedicated postal workers is definitely needed everywhere across Canada , whether on a city street post route door to door and especially so in rural areas! The elderly and infirmed definitely need and depend on the postman or postlady to receive thier mail … and its not uncommon that a postal delivery person has found a senior in need of medical help who has been unable to reachout for help for themselves! They have saved many lives…God bless postal workers. Also,
replying to the person who doesn’t want flyers delivered in his mail I suggest you post a legible and visible sign/ notice by your mail box or door slot where the postal serice delivery will be sure to see it , simply saying, ‘No Flyers. Thank you’ . That worked for me . I am totally against Carneys’ plan to create job losses when in fact Carney should be supporting all present working Canadians and creating more jobs for those who haven’t got a job and are dependent on the system rather than contributing to make it stronger and better for all. Only if one is out to destroy or profit illegally on the backs of others would anyone consider that Canada Post being for all, no matter who you are or where you live in Canada, not exclusively for the rich and already powerful to manipulate and destroy by reinventing! 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦ALL CANADIAN CITIZENS: STAND UP FOR BEING AND REMAINING A CANADIAN FOR ALL – NOT JUST FOR THE RICH AND ELITES AMONG US!!! 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦
With the Government and others like banks, credit cards pushing for paperless world Canada post is doomed. When it snows out postal driver will drive by mailboxes for days and say nothing. I am tired of emails CP in winter to get snowed cleared. Just shut it down and save money so liberals can give away to other countries
This article is laughable. I’ve been so against the liberal government and most everything they stand for. Yet this is one decision I agree with. Canada post is a failed operation destroyed by unions and is a black hole for our tax dollars. Shut it down to many courier services out there that can do what they dor for cents on the dollar and not have our mail held hostage during the holiday seasons by unnecessary union strikes. Y’all cried wolf one to many times and now time to pay the piper.
By the way Canada Post corporation owns Purolator(and likely more competitors). They’ve been siphoning the parcels to them in order to show “declining numbers” years prior to the contract ending.
It is sad that as Canadians many are playing right into the corps plans in order to shut down one of few and last public services that was never meant to turn a profit; but will likely be abolished now because those private owned companies making billions, need bigger yachts and pay their employees the very bare minimum.
Canada Post Union workers striking is the only reason Canadians even have maternity leave, no one seems to know this fact. They’ve paved the way for many of our working and living rights & now, we’re all going to become the mini USofA, in all the wrong ways.. what’s next? Education, healthcare, autonomy, democracy? Privatization is only lining the pockets of the upper 1%, this is not going to be helping the general public. No one seems to realize it is not tax dollars paying the postal workers wages. There shouldn’t be any CEO’s within Canada Post corp making half a million in annual incomes, plus bonuses which the grass roots actually earned for them. You cut from the top. You do not waste millions of dollars on equipment sitting outside in the elements not being utilized & call it a deficit because of the postal workers. They were an essential service during a world wide pandemic, but they’re not valued as such today? You blame the leaders and buyers of a company that is hemorrhaging money, not the people outside in rain or snow or the squelching heat.
When I ordered a parcel and Canada Post delivers it, I consistently get a slip telling me to go to the post office. I asked all companies to stop using Canada Post to deliver to me since then
If a company can’t even do what it is supposed to do, deliver mail and parcels, why would I ever trust it to do anything else?
That’s the hard truth. If your workers can’t do the basics, everybody else moves on to private delivery company which can actually deliver. Nobody cares about your strike because you become irrelevant
Without traffic and population density growing
I appreciate the article but there’s one factor that is forgotten: Technology. The postal system today is like what street lighters were in the early 20th century. We simply don’t need it anymore.
“hyper exploited” is an opinion not news. Looking for facts, isn’t here, bye
Canada Post does not lose 1 billion dollars a year. They received a loan of 1 billion this year. Until the current CEO took over they always made the government money.
Green energy? And, what about the upcoming ‘agentic’ governance in Canada? Doesn’t bode well with keeping Canada Post.
https://unbekoming.substack.com/p/what-the-nash-equilibrium-teaches
https://dhughes.substack.com/p/digital-technologies-as-weapons
Canada Post needs to become a self sustaining entity. It is the perfect candidate for doing so. Workers need to organize to take control of Canada Post as a worker owned company where workers are the owners and shareholders of the company. Canada cannot afford to shut down Canada Post and government cannot shut it down because they don’t know how to operate a company. It is time for the workers to construct a new business plan, where the workers vote on the decisions needed to keep Canada Post not only operating but operating efficiently. This is not a new concept, it has been around for a long, long time. It is commonly known as “Worker owned Co-operative”.
The ideas floated by the postal workers to generate revenue are just all terrible ideas.
Postal banking has been tried multiple times and hasn’t been successful since the late 60s when the market was completely different. Canada Post currently has bank account options available, no one uses them.
Checking on seniors is also kind of a ridiculous idea. Where does the revenue come from that? From families paying a fee? From the government? What about the liabilities that go along with checking in on people? Do the posties need additional training to go along with checking in on people? It’s just not at all a thought out idea.
Same with turning post offices into community hubs. Most post offices don’t have additional space that isn’t already rented. And again how does this produce revenue? By renting out non-existent space to service agencies that already rent spaces elsewhere? These ideas just seem like thinly veiled schemes to justify receiving more government funding, while providing half baked services.
In your previous article about this you also mentioned them wanting to electrify the postal service vehicle fleet, which is something the union is now complaining about Canada post spending money on. You also mentioned electric vehicle charging. Which could theoretically make some money but would be ridiculously expensive to implement and the revenue potential is limited.
The fact that Canada post has lots of retail space across the country isn’t the strength you seem to think it is. Most profitable retail businesses have been scaling back their brick and mortar locations for years now and being very selective about their locations. Maintaining hundreds of aging buildings is more of a liability than anything else.
The reality of the situation is that the postal workers are simply too well compensated for Canada post to be competitive for parcels and letter mail is dead. And make no mistake, posties are very well compensated. I know several postal workers. The letter carriers I know tend to work about 4 hours a day, which can be longer closer to the holidays, but they get bonus pay for that. The rural route drivers I know tend to work 3-4 hours a day. Those hours are due to previous union demands related to the length of routes. They mostly make between $50-60k. But when you only work half days they’re making an effective hourly salary equivalent of $100-120k. That is incredibly good compensation for an unskilled labour job. When you take that into consideration it isn’t hard to figure out why Canada post is losing so much money. And the amount of money they are actually losing is obfuscated by the amount of support they already receive from the federal government, such as the government covering all the business related expenses of staff pensions. (So much for the unions claims that they don’t use any tax payer funding).
It’s not that I want to see Canada Post be dismantled. I do think there are parts of it that are valuable. But the workers insistence on not allowing changes to core letter delivery services and fighting part time workers is just completely delusional. They believe that they are offering an essential service but 80% of the country doesn’t use Canada Post almost at all anymore. And it’s the constant strikes for the last decade that have put them in that position.
I would like to mimic The above response from Mez. I would get mail at the door if I had any.
Give me a box to go to…I am good with that. I know rural areas are a different story, and in those cases I could see a need as well as an opportunity to provide additional services.
A Hybrid Postal Service.
I also support the workers of Canada Post. There must be a high powered lobbyist who can magnify the advantages they have put forth regarding new roles (one that worked before included). Establishing an ISP to add competition would be another and i believe has been done in the U.K. I hope Carney listens.
Postal service should be just that—a service. Since when did every the Government does need to be a money-maker?
The postal workers have some good, imaginative ideas. They should be seriously considered, not dismissed. Wealthy lobbyists should have no part in the decision-making
Those who say we don’t need the postal service may consider others who do.
I agree with the important points made in this article. Is there a petition embodying these points that I can sign in order to join with other like-minded Canadians in sending this message to the federal government and Canada Post?
Now think about this- they close Canada Post. They cut you off from the internet via the new legislation. They already have your phone conversations. YOU are isolated and controlled. It is OVER! All this, to suck up to tRump.
What a load of bollocks! Canada Post no longer has a viable future and the CUPW is leading that charge! Its business model is outdated, its workers entitled so the government needs to stop bailing out this floundering business at the tax payers expense. $1.5B in losses in 2025? It’s bloody absurd! At least Intelcom and its subsidiaries are efficient, reliable and hard working. Thats a model to emulate surely, not deride? You might not like Amazon or Bezos but unlike Canada Post they are making money hand over fist not loosing it! Canada Post is non of those things and never will be. Either privatize it or get rid of it completely. Its workers are already over compensated for the work they actually do! It’s not bloody rocket science! And no the suggestions being touted to increase their mandate are just plain dumb! They can’t even get the mail delivery right!
People don’t seem to realize that workers who have stable jobs, fair wages, manageable workloads and respect will be better employees, delivering satisfactory outcomes and staying in their jobs. Unions were formed a century ago to ensure fair wages and hours, vacations and benefits. When they were dismantled and workers overburdened and overworked, mostly starting in the Mulroney times and continued under Martin, the standards of living dropped for the majority of workers while the rich got richer and paid less and less tax. Canada Post has been gutted and all these commenters are blaming the wrong culprits. Tax the wealthy. End gig jobs. Respect all workers.
To Maria who inquired about petitions supporting the revitalization of the public service, there is a petition in the House Of Commons here:
https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-6806
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) also has a campaign called “Hands Off My Post Office” where you can write or sign your name off to a letter demanding public consultion on the future of the Postal Service, which will be sent to your local MP, Prime Minister Mark Carney, Minister Joel Lightbound, and CEO of Canada Post, Doug Ettinger.
You can also find more information on Postal Banking and Postal Workers ideas for revitalization of the service, revenue generating ideas, community and nation building projects under our “ Delivering Community Power” campaign. Thanks for asking!
https://www.cupw.ca/en/campaign/resources/take-action-stop-attack-canada-post
https://www.deliveringcommunitypower.ca/
You’re clearly a union supporter. Think about it. Any minimum wage earners offered more shifts would say yes please. But striking because they don’t feel like working overtime, that they would be paid a ridiculous hourly wage for…that’s just throwing a temper tantrum.
If you don’t like your job….work somewhere else so I, as a taxpayer, can stop supporting your whiny ass.