Few, if any, government organizations have been studied as frequently and in as great detail over the past few decades as Canada Post.
“It’s been studied to death, we know what the issues are,” said Ian Lee, an associate professor of management at Carleton University who is himself the author of several of those studies.
And indeed, the federal government announced this week that it was undertaking another review.
But then it did something that no government has been willing to do for years: Acting on recommendations from a report issued in May, it ordered Canada Post to drastically change what it does and how it does it.
After describing Canada Post as “effectively insolvent,” Joël Lightbound, the minister of public services, ordered the postal system to end door-to-door letter mail delivery and lifted a ban on the closing of rural post offices that dates to the 1990s.
For the Liberals, the end of door-to-door delivery is a striking reversal. During the 2015 election campaign, Justin Trudeau campaigned against a Canada Post plan to move customers to community mailboxes. And after taking office as prime minister, he soon canceled the plan.
This week’s announcement was also a provocative move. Canada Post’s workers, who were ordered back to work after a walkout in December, are still technically on strike. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has been pushing in negotiations to preserve its members’ jobs and to expand Canada Post’s services. So there was little surprise that after the new Liberal government under Prime Minister Mark Carney pivoted, the workers resumed their walkout and shut down the postal system.
[Read: Postal Workers Walk Out After Canada Orders an End to Door-to-Door Delivery]
Professor Lee, who once worked in a financial role at Canada Post, said that the new walkout was not against the post office and its management.
“They’re striking against public policy decisions of the government,” he said. “The government of Canada is now in the driver’s seat.”
After being undercut by the government in the protracted negotiations, the union appeared both frustrated and angry.
“Minister Lightbound can spin it all he wants, but his announcement yesterday was a direct assault on our public post office, the public’s right to participate in political processes and good, unionized jobs across the country,” Jan Simpson, the union’s national president said in a statement on Friday. “In the face of the U.S. government’s threats of economic war, this government was elected because it promised to defend our important institutions, not tear them down.”
It’s unclear what will end the latest strike.
On Friday, the union presented a new proposed contract, which Canada Post swiftly rejected as too costly. The post office, in turn, asked for more time before handing over its latest offer.
While owned by the government, Canada Post was made into a crown corporation in 1981, and, like any company, it is supposed to finance its operations from sales. It has lost more than 5 billion Canadian dollars since 2018 and has kept its lights on only with infusions of government money.
The financial crisis was set off by a drastic drop in letter mail volumes, historically Canada Post’s main source of revenue. Hopes that moving parcels could revive the organization have been undermined by the highly competitive nature of that delivery sector and new companies’ use of gig workers, who are poorly paid and not unionized.
Professor Lee said he expected that the strike would be long and be resolved only by legislation to greatly transform the post office.
“It’s going to be ugly beyond all belief,” he said, adding that any such shake-up could mean the end of 30,000 to 40,000 well-paying jobs. “It’s going to be the mother of all public policy debates of those since the free trade debate of 1988.”
But what should Canada Post be in the future?
Privatization, Mr. Lee said, is out of the question because of Canada’s large number of remote communities that cannot be served profitably.
Instead, he says that the government should drop any pretense that Canada Post is potentially financially viable as a business and return it to being a public service. In his view, it could then abandon letter mail entirely — including community mailboxes — and focus instead on package delivery for remote and rural communities. It would still need an urban presence, of course, to link those locations with institutions and businesses in cities.
I’d like to know how you use Canada Post and what changes, if any, you would like to see in its services. Please send your thoughts to [email protected]. Unless we hear otherwise from you, we may include some comments in a future newsletter, so please include your full name and the community in which you live.
Trans Canada
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I recently went to Wolfe Island, at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River in Ontario, to look into the end of a ferry service that linked it to the United States for over 200 years. There is some hope that the boat may again make its 10-minute crossings next year.
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My colleague Norimitsu Onishi and Renaud Philippe, a photographer, traveled to Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, to a high-tech greenhouse that could become an alternative to flying in fresh fruits and vegetables at great cost from the south and create a healthier diet for the Inuit.
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Canada was among several nations that broke with the United States and recognized Palestine this week. Here is some background on what that means and where it may lead.
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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the basketball star, was back home in Hamilton, Ontario, as well as in Toronto to unveil his first signature sneaker.
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Eleven Canadian restaurants made the inaugural list of North America’s 50 Best Restaurants. Julia Moskin reports that “many of the picks on the North American list are notably more casual than those on the global list.”
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Jeremy Hansen, the Canadian astronaut who will travel around the moon perhaps as soon as February on a NASA mission, urged nations this week to work together. “Collaboration needs to be the ultimate goal if eight billion of us are going to have a bright future on this planet,” he said.
Ian Austen reports on Canada for The Times. A Windsor, Ontario, native now based in Ottawa, he has reported on the country for two decades. He can be reached at [email protected].
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Ian Austen reports on Canada for The Times. A Windsor, Ontario, native now based in Ottawa, he has reported on the country for two decades. He can be reached at [email protected].
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