Canada Post says it expects the transition of the remaining addresses to community mailboxes to take about five years.
The Crown corporation announced Thursday the latest details on the switch to community mailboxes. The national conversion program is expected to take five years, with different addresses moving to community mailboxes each year, and the first 13 communities have been announced.
The communities in New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and B.C. represent 136,000 address that will be converted to community mailboxes in late 2026 and early 2027. The only western Canadian communities listed are Mission, Abbotsford, the city and district of North Vancouver and West Vancouver.
Most of the addresses selected in this first phase are adjacent to areas that already receive delivery to community mailboxes.
“Canada Post understands converting dense urban core areas poses additional challenges. These areas will be addressed in later stages of the multi-year conversion program.”
Canada Post says converting an address to a community mailbox from door-to-door delivery typically takes months.
Door-to-door delivery costs about 75 per cent more than delivery to a community mailbox at $284 per address compared to $162, according to the May 2025 Industrial Inquiry Commission’s report into the state of Canada Post.
The report was bleak, noting that the Crown corporation was facing an existential crisis and is “effectively insolvent, or bankrupt. As part of the report, commissioner William Kaplan recommended ending door-to-door home delivery and lifting the moratoriums on rural post office closures and community mailbox conversions.
The Crown corporation will be working with the communities as it identifies suitable locations for the community mailboxes. Canada Post will also be notifying residents of the upcoming change in mail delivery.
Canada Post announced March 30 it would be taking the next steps to convert the country’s remaining 25 per cent of addresses that still receive door-to-door delivery to community mailboxes.
Federal Government Transformation Minister Joël Lightbound, in September 2025, accepted all the recommendations in the Industrial Inquiry Commission report and directed Canada Post to modernize to stabilize its finances. That included the remaining community mailbox conversions.
Lightbound gave Canada Post 45 days to submit a plan. The Crown corporation submitted it right on deadline in early November 2025, detailing a five-point “comprehensive transformation plan.”
Part of Canada Post’s transformation plan includes retail modernization.
Canada Post says Canadians are visiting post offices less frequently and making fewer in-store purchases, which has led to a 30-per-cent drop in retail revenues since 2021 and usage is “uneven” across the network.
That modernization is starting with market reviews to “gather and validate” operational data of local post offices, providing Canada Post with an accurate and up-to-date view of each location.
However the union representing postal workers is urging union members to fight back against the change.
A statement posted to the Canadian Union of Postal Workers website from first national vice-president Rona Eckert on Thursday said “this isn’t just about jobs.” The statement calls on unionized workers in every local to get involved.
“A little more than 10 years after we beat back (Canada Post’s) last attempt to end door-to-door delivery, they’re at it again.”
The statement also includes the potential job cuts, which range anywhere from 25 to 40 per cent, at each depot connected to the first conversions.
The union estimates 20 to 25 per cent potential job cuts at the Abbotsford Station Delivery Centre, 30 to 35 per cent at Mission LCD Main and 35 to 40 per cent at North Vancouver LCD Capilano.