It’s time for Canada Post to introduce some changes to save money
By Lethbridge Herald on November 16, 2024.
OUR OPINION
With the union representing postal workers (CUPW) going on strike Friday, it’s time that some serious changes be introduced at Canada Post.
The Crown Corp. has lost more than $3 Billion between 2018-2023 and the corporation is expected to lose more in 2024 than it did last year (-$748 million).
With many local, national and international courier companies currently delivering parcels and packages throughout Alberta and Canada, should the federal government’s Crown Corporation compete with private industry in parcel delivery?
Even one of Canada’s largest courier companies – Purolator – is 91 per cent owned by Canada Post.
Other than flyers (often referred to as junk mail) imagine how small the amount of mail the average residence receives each week, compared to 10 years ago.
Most of us now receive utility bills, credit card and banking statements through e-mail – making daily postal delivery a by-gone tradition that is much like rotary dial telephones and tube televisions.
Mail delivery can and should still occur to each residence – the only question that needs debate – does it really need to be delivered 20+ days each month?
If it were two deliveries per week, how much money could Canada Post save each year – saving the federal government (and taxpayers) millions & millions of dollars each and every year.
Our world is changing rapidly – it’s time for Canada Post to jump into the 21st century.
11-10
I agree with less delivery. We have a PO box. We used to check it twice a day at times. Now we only check it if we are expecting something important. Otherwise its once or twice a week at most.
I agree that 1 or 2 mail deliveries per week should be a strong consideration. Cutting out house to house delivery too. Unfortunately this would eliminate hourly jobs. Staff and senior management positions should be on the table. These losses cannot become the norm.
A few years back CP had over 60% of parcel deliver. Today it is 28%. Didn’t adapt from the Mon-Fri weekend off delivery model. Wait till Amazon sets up picking up and shipping your parcels. Others deliver 7 days a week and holidays until 7 or 8 at night.
There remains a segment of the Canadian population who rely solely on paper mail delivery. In 2022, Statistics Canada reported the largest increase in Internet use was seen among Canadians aged 75 years and older, up from 62% in 2020 to 72% in 2022. Nevertheless, this leaves over 25% of this population reliant on paper mail delivery. Moreover, the Government of Canada published a report in October 2024 stating only 62% of Canadians living in rural areas have access to an internet connection with broadband speeds of at least 50 megabytes per second (Mbps) for downloads and 10 Mbps for uploads. Therefore, it cannot be unequivocally stated that “postal delivery is a by-gone tradition.” It is moving in this direction; but, continues to require a reasonable and workable transitional approach.
good replies to the editor by imo, jersey and chmie.
it makes sense that some cutbacks take place to meet demand and need; but, service and the public good should also be primary.
canada post should be able to make itself competitive, and challenge other delivery corps. i see no reason why a crown corp should not be able to compete with a multinational corp…the thing is, it seems our govts love to hand off to their good, big corp buddies every crown corp that is a money maker. we have seen this often, too often, over too may decades – and it is a practice done by both cons and libs.
it is essential that a country that believes in the public good should be in the business of making money, certainly enough money to cover the costs of the services we depend on and need in order to be an educated, safe, healthy, supportive and sustainable society. is it not yet obvious this cannot be done simply by taxing the middle class to death?
just an add-on: to the point about how govt gives away our profitable crown corps to their buddies, now that the big money and waste has been absorbed by the tax payer, and after well overpaying for that debacle, and after ramming it through all the first nations that did not want it (talk about peace and reconciliation….), i expect trans mountain will before long be returned to big corp for a fraction of what it cost us, via the corruption process we lovingly call our govt.
please, get out and vote, for your favourite named party of corruption, sleaze, lies, and ineptitude. because, corruption, sleaze, lies, and ineptitude is not a concern, the concern is whether the party in power overseeing it all carries the tag one is sold on, right?
“Profitability”, “sustainability”, etc. cannot really be looked at in vacuum.
The issue here is the cost difference between rural and urban service. For-profit players will simply not bother with rural access, or charge much higher prices. So you have one of two possibilities:
1 Let service providers do whatever they want, and those who are rural will likely not get serviced by some providers. They will pay a large premium for their deliveries to the providers who will service.
2 or force providers (e.g. Canada Post or others) to provide access to all at the same cost, so the increase in costs either affects all customers or has to be taken as reduced profit or loss.
To see how it plays out in the second model, all you have to do is to look at our cellphone prices compared to other countries.
That is just how our geography and population distribution works. There is not much that can be done, but we have to accept that and deal with the consequences. Do we believe in the same costs for postal service regardless of geographic areas, and how much are we willing to pay for this service?
you present good points. it is just a guess that having canada post set rural and urban prices the same likely does not force up prices for all very much.
you also underscore that a strong canada post may provide the greatest benefits to all those living in rural and remote areas.
would one feel that canada post needs to be able to compete as a viable business? ( they will have to be able to go 6 days a week, maybe 7, and they should be let loose to compete head on with the competition. canadians can help by leaning to canada post whenever roughly fair value is found…those working for fed ex and purolator [latter 90% owned by can post] earn at least as much as do can post employees, so wages are not nearly likely for canada post’s poor numbers)