Canada announced a significant overhaul of its national postal service on Thursday, mandating an end to door-to-door mail delivery, the closure of some rural post offices, and a consolidation of its overall operations. These drastic measures come as the mail carrier grapples with severe financial difficulties, threatening its very existence.
Canada Post, a Crown corporation, has accumulated losses exceeding 5 billion Canadian dollars (approximately $3.6 billion U.S.) since 2018. This financial decline is primarily attributed to a sharp decrease in traditional letter mail usage, a gap the service has struggled to fill through its parcel delivery operations, an increasingly competitive market.
“Canada Post is effectively insolvent, and it is facing an existential crisis,” stated Joël Lightbound, Canada’s Minister for Public Services, during a press conference. The government anticipates these cost-cutting initiatives will stabilize Canada Post’s finances after multiple government bailouts, though they are expected to lead to substantial layoffs among its 68,000 employees.
Doug Ettinger, Canada Post’s chief executive, affirmed, “Today’s announcement will allow us to make the changes needed to restore Canada’s postal service for all Canadians by evolving to better meet their needs.”
Door-to-door postal delivery has already been a diminishing service across much of Canada, with only about 25 percent of residents still receiving mail directly at their homes. The majority of Canadians collect their mail from individual boxes located within community mailboxes or apartment buildings.
Despite this trend, the complete elimination of remaining door-to-door service will impact roughly four million addresses, according to government figures.
“The data was screaming at us that Canada Post was desperate to be reorganized and restructured,” commented Ian Lee, a business professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, who has closely observed the postal service’s trajectory.
The push to end door-to-door delivery isn’t new; Canada Post was already moving in this direction until former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made it a key campaign promise in 2015. Upon taking office, Trudeau promptly reversed the policy, halting the transition to community mailboxes.
However, since that time, the volume of letter mail has plummeted, a trend exacerbated during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.
While Canadians generally prefer not to see door-to-door delivery entirely abolished, a June poll by Angus Reid Institute indicated increased public support for operational changes and service reductions, acknowledging the postal service’s precarious financial state.
“The political decision is that we can’t, Canadians can’t, be footing an ever-growing bill year after year,” Mr. Lightbound reiterated.
Officials noted that no specific date has been set for the complete cessation of at-home mail delivery, with changes slated for gradual implementation. Additional measures include shifting certain mail transportation from air to ground to reduce costs. The government also lifted a ban, in place since 1994, on closing rural post offices—a policy that had previously faced significant public opposition.
The union representing postal workers and Canada Post are currently in contentious contract negotiations, which previously led to a strike earlier this year. The union was expected to present its latest offer on Friday.
The union has not yet responded to requests for comment regarding these developments.
Stephanie Ross, a professor of labor studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, suggested that another strike is now a strong possibility. “What leverage the union had at the bargaining table has now been significantly undermined,” she observed. “I can’t imagine how angry people are.”
Ian Austen contributed reporting from Ottawa.