On September 26, unionized workers of Canada Post hit the picket lines for the second time in less than a year.

Similar to the last strike, which ended in December 2024, the move brings a complete halt to the delivery of letters and parcels through the postal system. No delivery dates can be guaranteed for items already in the system.

An exception is being made for socioeconomic cheques, such as government pension cheques for senior citizens.

The work disruption will affect approximately 55,000 postal workers nationwide, not to mention millions of Canadians who depend on the service.

Previous Strike

According to CUPW, it’s been almost two years since their last collective agreement ended and bargaining for a new one began.

 When those negotiations began in 2024, CUPW was seeking a 22 percent wage increase for its members over a four-year term. Prior to the 2024 strike, Canada Post was willing to meet them about halfway.

For CUPW, it wasn’t enough. The offer fell far short in terms of considering their other demands, including increases to short-term disability payouts and paid sick days. For rural and suburban mail carriers, the union also sought corporate vehicles as well as paid meals and breaks.

Four weeks into the strike, Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon ordered union employees back to work in December, promising a full inquiry into Canada Post’s structuring and the development of ideas on how to move forward.

Results of Inquiry

On May 17 of this year, a report was released by William Kaplan, the appointed industrial inquiry commissioner. It recommended a number of tough new measures, including an end to door-to-door residential mail services.

“Canada Post is facing an existential crisis: It is effectively insolvent, or bankrupt,” wrote Kaplan. “Without thoughtful, measured, staged, but immediate changes, its fiscal situation will continue to deteriorate.”

The fiscal situation he refers to is the fact that Canada Post, as it currently functions, has become a liability to the taxpayer.

The corporation hasn’t turned a profit since 2017. Since that time, it’s lost $3 billion and counting. According to the minister responsible for Canada Post, Joël Lightbound, that equates to an ongoing loss of $10 million per day.

In 2025, the federal government dispensed a $1 billion loan to help Canada Post in the short term.

Latest Recommendations

Taking Kaplan’s recommendations to heart, Lightbound has encouraged Canada Post to bring to their home delivery service to a close.

“We’re talking four million addresses that will be converted to community mailboxes,” Lightbound said earlier this month. “To give [the public] a sense of the reason why we’re doing this, it costs significantly more to deliver mail to an individual address than it does to a community mailbox. Seventy-seven percent of Canadians already receive mail through rural or community mailboxes or department buildings. So… allowing Canada Post to make these changes over years will save the corporation about $400 million.”1

Another $20 million could be recouped, he added, by using ground instead of air to move nonurgent mail.

He added that it’s time to lift the 1994 moratorium on closing rural post offices, many of which have since become urban locations.

The CUPW argues that the same Canadians who fund the publicly owned corporation will be the first to lose if Lightbound gets his way.

“When public services are cut, inequality grows, and it’s the public that suffers,” reads a statement by CUPW. “Postal workers are fighting to not only keep reliable and affordable services in communities across the country, but to provide even more services. Unlike private companies that deliver only where it’s profitable, Canada Post keeps communities linked and Canadians connected and that matters.”

Local Effects

To say that a postal strike is a huge inconvenience is an understatement. When Canada Post employees are working, they provide an effective and inexpensive way to do commerce.

Important documents such as medical test results and passports are transferred from agency to individual with minimal effort. Bills get paid and goods change hands.

For small businesses, an operational postal system can mean the difference between survival and bankruptcy.

SJ and her husband run an engine rebuild business near Île-des-Chênes. When invoices regularly run into the tens of thousands, cheques are the simplest and most cost-effective way to accept payment.

Many of their clientele, too, are older in age and are not set up for electronic banking.

During last year’s postal strike, SJ says about $100,000 worth of payments were being held in Canada Post limbo. Still, the couple had bills to pay.

As the strike went on, week after week, the couple had to dip deep into their personal savings to stay in good stead with their suppliers.

“Honestly, it was horrible,” says SJ. “It took until January before we were able to pay ourselves back for owed wages and personal money we borrowed to the business. During Christmas we were living off our savings and credit cards. Fortunately, we had money to fall back on, but not everyone in similar situations has that luxury.” 

Dima Rozanov is a small business owner with an online company that sells everything from computer parts and printer toners to vintage radios and hockey jerseys. His business model relies heavily on shipping these items.

“Businesses have commitments to the clients and have to ship items within specific timeframes,” Rozanov says. “Currently, my orders have plummeted to almost zero because people can’t rely on Canada Post and they’re not willing to pay for more expensive options such as UPS or FedEx.”

In order to stay afloat, Rozanov has to cover the extra cost of shipping himself, substantially lowering his profit margins. A 200-gram package that would cost $7 to ship through Canada Post now costs $17. He absorbs the difference.

Equally frustrating, he says, is watching big corporations like Amazon flourish during times like these.

Changing with the Times

According to some, it’s easy to see why Canada Post’s model no longer works.

Physical mail has lost much of its relevance. The 5.5 billion annual letters that Canada Post delivered at its height 20 years ago now translates to only 2.2 billion. Fewer letters sent means fewer stamps sold, reducing one of the corporation’s biggest income generators.

As income declines, the number of addresses across the country requiring mail delivery has gone up by three million.

At the same time, Canada Post has seen an incredible rise in competition when it comes to parcel delivery. This is especially difficult since Canada Post’s employees don’t work weekends.

Still, Lightbound and Kaplan see merit in saving the postal service.

“I think it has to survive because it provides an essential lifeline to hundreds if not thousands of communities across the country, [including] northern, remote, and indigenous communities,” Lightbound said last week. “It’s got a vast network that I think Canadians depend on to be connected to one another and to the world.”