EDITORIAL: Canada Post must change or vanish
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As another postal strike looms as early as Thursday, a new federal government report says the Crown corporation must change or die.
As reported by The Canadian Press, the industrial inquiry commission, headed by William Kaplan, warns that Canada Post faces an existential crisis, is essentially bankrupt and needs major reforms.
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The last time it turned a profit was in 2017.
It lost $3 billion before taxes from 2018 to 2023 and only drastic measures can save it.
Among the recommendations are phasing out daily door-to-door mail delivery to individual home addresses, except for businesses — which many Canadians haven’t had for years — and ending the moratorium on closing rural post offices and community mailbox conversions.
The federal Crown corporation also needs the flexibility to hire part-time workers and change routes to reflect daily mail volumes, the report said.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers, representing 55,000 employees, objects to many of these provisions, saying they endanger job security for its full-time members.
But the reality is that Canada Post has to change because mail volume has declined from 5.5 billion letters in 2006 to 2.2 billion in 2023.
Where Canadian households received an average of seven letters per week in 2006, that number had dropped to two in 2023.
If the two sides can’t reach a new collective agreement this week, the union could strike as early as May 22 — actually a continuation of an earlier strike, which began on Nov. 15, 2024 and was suspended by the Canada Industry Labour Relations Board on Dec. 17.
What’s clear from the commission’s report is that the status quo is not an option for Canada Post.
According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, the last postal strike cost small and medium-sized businesses more than $1 billion, as millions of parcels and letters sat idle during the Christmas holiday season with lost orders, late payments and businesses forced to use more expensive delivery alternatives.
Another postal strike — or, if you prefer, the resumption of a previous one — is the last thing the Canadian economy needs right now as the country heads into a possible recession this year.
If Canada’s postal service is to survive, its union and management must recognize that times have changed.
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