B.C. ombudsperson says the province’s delivery of social assistance cheques during the 2024 postal strike, while “imperfect,” was still “reasonable.”
Ombudsperson Jay Chalke released his latest report, “Stamp of Approval: Delivering income and assistance cheques during a postal strike,” Wednesday (Dec. 17), which looked into the province’s delivery of cheques during the Canada Post strike in late 2024.
Postal workers announced national strike action in November 2024, which posed concerns for possible delays for people who received the monthly provincial payments by mail.
Chalke’s office announced in December 2024 that his office would be investigating B.C.’s Social Development and Poverty Reduction Ministry after thousands of social assistance cheques allegedly weren’t delivered amid the Canada Post strike. The ministry responded to say that 98 per cent of the November 2024 cheques had been delivered by the end of the month.
“The 2024 postal strike had the potential to impact thousands of people in B.C. in their ability to meet essential needs, be it food on the table, warm clothing, or a safe place to sleep,” Chalke said in a statement Wednesday.
“In this case, however, the ministry’s overall response was reasonable, and I am encouraged by its efforts to ensure cheques were distributed in a timely way.”
Chalke made no recommendations in the report, but the ombudsperson publicly released the report “in the interest of transparency” and because the office publicly announced the launch of the investigation.
“Most of our public reports contain findings of unfairness by a public body. But that’s not the case here,” Chalke said.
“When it happens, it is important to recognize good administration, and here, once the strike began the ministry responded well to the service disruptions posed by the postal strike.”
Chalke added the ministry told his office that the 2024 strike led to improvements for future postal strikes. He said there was evidence of that when the ministry communicated its processes during the most recent postal strike in September 2025.
According to the report, data reviewed by the ombudsperson’s office showed that in the two months before and the two months after the strike, cheques were cashed in an average of four days after being issued. That’s compared to the average of seven days during the two months of the strike.
The report, however, found that the Social Development and Poverty Reduction Ministry’s strike planning and early public communication were limited.
It says the strike notice was issued Nov. 13, 2024 and began two days later. Ministry staff was notified of the strike immediately. On Nov. 18, 2024 – two days before cheque issue day – the ministry reportedly provided staff with instructions for processing mail cheques, and confirmed it had communicated with recipients through messages on the website, contact centre and My Self Serve portal.
However, Chalke’s report notes that the ministry didn’t issue a public news release until Dec. 17, 2024, leading to a gap in public information about the ministry’s response.