If you’ve got a dog that loves barking at the mailman, it’s time to sit them down and deliver some difficult news.
What happened: The federal government directed Canada Post to end home mail delivery and transition all residential addresses to a community mailbox model, lift its moratorium on rural post office closures, and eliminate daily delivery of letter mail (except to businesses).
- The changes were recommended in a May report, commissioned to find ways to shore up Canada Post’s finances after it lost $1.3 billion last year.
Why it matters: The cuts will make using the postal service less convenient for the roughly 4 million households that currently enjoy home delivery, along with those in places that wind up seeing their local post office closed.
- The federal government believes that’s a price worth paying, however, to solve what it has called Canada Post’s “existential crisis” driven by years of staggering financial losses.
Why it’s happening: Canada Post’s traditional revenue sources have vanished, as emails replaced letters and private competitors ate the profitable parts of its parcel business. That left it with no way to cover its operating expenses except government subsidy.
Bottom line: Barring an unforeseen surge in the popularity of sending letters rather than emails and texts (which might be nice!), Canada Post is likely to require large amounts of public money to operate indefinitely — but the feds are no longer interested in footing that bill.—TS