Right in the centre - Canada Post is in trouble

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Published on Thursday, September 12, 2024

By Ken Waddell

Neepawa Banner & Press

The government of Canada has a number of financial disasters on its hands. Some are ongoing like the CBC that sucks up $1.3 billion a year in taxpayers money. Another is Canada Post as between 2018 and 2023 it has lost $3 billion. In the first six months of 2024 CP has reportedly lost $464 million. The Corporation has current loans and borrowings of $1 billion, of which $500 million is due for repayment in July 2025. At least $1 billion in new borrowings or other liquidity measures are required for 2025, including refinancing $500 million in existing debt.

A quick review of those figures don’t add up as $3.464 billion can’t be covered by only a billion in debt so I can only assume that Canada Post is in deep trouble but they aren’t sure how deep. I also assume that Canadian taxpayers are going to have to pony up the money to keep the post office afloat.

I have been going for the mail for nearly 60 years and Canada Post, as a corporation, hasn’t kept up. The local post office staff have, for the most part,  done an excellent job of serving their customers. As you go up the ladder, the service falls off pretty fast.

Two or three years ago, I needed to talk to someone and I had a list of three people who I occasionally phoned. I phoned them all twice and never got a reply. That was a bit annoying.

Then we started checking on newspaper deliveries and found that often papers that were taken to a post office on our regular Thursday schedule were taking as long as a week to get to nearby towns. We are a weekly paper and a 5-7 day delivery just isn’t satisfactory. I think what was happening is that our paper bundles were going from one of the two post offices we used and getting hung up in a regional warehouse in behind the Amazon deliveries.

There’s only so many trucks and I guess the papers weren’t a priority. Postal staff will tell you that First Class Mail (letters) are no longer a priority, parcels are. That obviously means that Third  Class Mail (newspapers) slip even further down the ladder.

Addressed subscription papers can get to their destination in a week (we have tracked it as being that quick sometimes) but it’s not unusual for two or even three newspapers to arrive on the same day so obviously CP staff somewhere are setting newspapers aside for a later date.

Canada Post is somewhat strangled by government regulations. They are mandated to deliver mail to every address in Canada. That is just not possible at current prices.

There has to be some changes. That said, in the 21st century, why do we still have rural routes. I know of one that is within six miles of a major town. Really? People would have to wait until they get home, after being at the coffee shop, to get their mail in their end-of-lane mailbox. There are a lot of rural routes that don’t make sense. In urban areas, maybe door-to-door delivery could be three days a week instead of five or six.

I know I sound like an old guy but, we used to get our mail once a week and we had to drive to town to get it. If Canada Post wants to cut some costs, door to door might have to go. 

There’s another part of Canada Post that needs examination. CP has 23 people at the vice-president or higher level. Add to that they have many marketing people. Maybe if the people who are supposed to look after customers at the regional level would learn to answer the phone, things might go better.

All I know is that we only use Canada Post on a very limited basis and I also know that money we used to spend on Canada Post now goes into our employees and the cost of having three vehicles on the road.

Canada Post hasn’t kept up with the times at all. Thirty years ago, Canada Post wouldn’t let local offices have a fax machine. Ironically, they came and paid to use our fax machine. Why aren’t Canada Post offices used by Services Canada staff to meet with clients? Why don’t they offer banking services, especially in towns that don’t have a bank? Why are Canada Post employees allowed to go on strike? After we had struggled through three or four postal strikes, we got smart and started to find better ways to get our papers out to readers. The president of Canada Post has told the government they can’t keep going. He’s right and CP needs an overhaul or it just won’t be there in a few years.