Canada Post has submitted its proposed “comprehensive transformation plan” to the federal government, just within the 45-day window.
On Sept 25, Government Transformation Minister Joël Lightbound gave the Crown corporation three directives to stabilize Canada Post’s finances. Those included letter mail delivery standards, community mailbox conversions and postal network modernization.
Canada Post submitted its plan to the federal government for review on Friday (Nov. 7), meeting a 45-day deadline.
The plan says Canada Post is prepared to take “decisive action” to deliver services in a way that is “financially sustainable.”
As Canada Post “prepares to renew and modernize,” the plan says its transformation will be guided by a set of five principles: prioritizing service, proceeding thoughtfully, treating employees with respect, keeping Canadians informed and being flexible.
Canada Post president Doug Ettinger said the comprehensive plan responds to the challenges, while modernizing the postal service to support today’s economy and serve all Canadians.
“While our situation requires that we act with urgency, we will be thoughtful and respectful in our approach and responsive to feedback,” Ettinger said. “Canadians deserve a postal service that is strong, stable and focused on meeting their changing needs, and we are focused on delivering that.”
Ongoing labour negotiations
The plan comes amid ongoing labour negotiations between Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. The union met with Canada Post and federal mediators on the same day the plan was publicly released.
The union says it has not seen “any details” of the plan, and that Canadians deserve a say before it is finalized.
“Once again, the real owners – the public – are being cut out of the process.”
Canadian Union of Postal Workers president Jan Simpson said Canada Post’s recent stamp rate increase means it is already on the way to “financial sustainability.” Simpson added that Canada Post’s $376 million in letter revenues in the first six months of 2025 is “already more than what the corporation says it will save yearly if it ends door-to-door delivery.”
Government directing changes
In May, the Industrial Inquiry Commission publicly released its final report to Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers after hearings held earlier this year into the issues facing Canada Post and the union.
That report recommended ending residential door-to-door delivery, but maintaining daily business delivery, among other recommendations.
Lightbound said on Sept. 25 that the federal government was accepting all of the recommendations from the May report.
The federal government will be lifting the moratorium on community mailbox conversions, meaning Canada Post will now have to convert the remaining four million addresses to community mailboxes. The government promises it will generate close to $400 million in annual savings.
“It’s an expensive service … Delivering mail to an individual address costs the corporation $279 a year, whereas delivering mail to a community mailbox costs $157 a year.”
Currently, about three-quarters of Canadians already receive mail through community, apartment or rural mailboxes.
The moratorium on rural post offices will also be lifted. That’s been in place since 1994, covering close to 4,000 locations.
Canada Post has also been directed to move non-urgent mail by ground instead of by air for a savings of more than $20 million per year. The release from the federal government said the average household now receives just two letters per week, but operations remain designed for far higher volumes.
May report recommendations
Industrial Inquiry Commissioner William Kaplan was tasked with examining the current collective bargaining dispute and the positions of Canada Post and the union, specifically looking at the financial situation of Canada Post, the company’s need to diversify or alter its delivery models, the union’s negotiated commitments to job security and full-time employment, and the need to protect the health and safety of employees.
The report notes that Canada Post is facing an existential crisis and is “effectively insolvent, or bankrupt.” The union attributed the financial situation to bad business decisions by Canada Post, but Kaplan didn’t fully agree.
He said the reasons are easy to identify: A decline in letter mail as more people chose electronic versions; parcel mail now mostly delivered by competitors; collective agreement work rules that restricted Canada Post from exercising basic management rights such as assigning existing employees additional work when they have finished their assigned tasks; and moratoriums on closing rural post offices and ending community mailbox conversions.