Canada Post – financial profile – 2015 to 2024 [Canada Post]
Monday October 6, 2025 | VICTORIA, BC
News analysis by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
The last few days have been jam-packed with changes around the scenario of Canada Post as a company and how its unionized workers are responding. Each day, the Canadian Postal Workers Union (CUPW) also responded.
On September 25, the federal government directed Canada Post to adjust delivery of mail to be based on volume, not ‘every day to every address’. This was put in the context of being a cost-saving measure, as the government can no longer bail out Canada Post, said Joël Lightbound, Minister of Government Transformation, Public Works and Procurement.
Joël Lightbound, Minister of Government Transformation, Public Works and Procurement announces changes t Canada Post mandate, Sept 25, 2025. [livestrteam].
Canada Post workers responded by going fully on strike, providing no delivery services of any kind. That escalation came after previously just refusing to work overtime hours (which slowed overall service) and then to refuse delivery of commercial flyers (which hit the employer in a substantive area of revenue).
Canadians impacted, particularly small business:
Sadly, while the strike will impact Canadians in various ways, it almost seems like a regularized part of Canadian life that postal service is once again disrupted.
Under this scenario, small businesses and other operations such as non-profits an charities that still rely on Canada Post are shifting to other options.
Financial realities:
In recent days Canada Post dropped the offer of a signing bonus of between $500 to $1,000 per employee “due to the company’s deteriorating financial situation.”
Canada Post has not turned a profit since 2017. They were burdened by a rock-solid lifetime employment guarantee for their employees and an outdated government mandate requiring daily delivery to all Canadian addresses. For some reason, they kept their postage stamp prices extremely low considering the value of the service.
Canada Post – financial profile – 2015 to 2024 [Canada Post]
Summary of the last few days:
As the situation continues to evolve, here is a summary of what transpired during October 1 to 3:
Wednesday October 1, 2025:
CANADA POST: Canada Post says they are on a journey to restore and renew the postal service.
In light of the changes announced by the Government of Canada in the last week of September, Canada Post has 45 days to present a plan on how to move the postal system forward. Canada Post President and CEO Doug Ettinger issued a letter to Canadians addressing the announcement and the proposed changes, which highlighted:
Fewer than one in four households still receives door to door delivery.
List of rural post offices was created 30 years ago and has not been updated. They still aim to serve rural, remote, northern and Indigenous communities.
Staffing reduction is necessary to be a leaner operation. Thousands of employees are eligible to retire over the next five years which Canada Post feels will minimize the impact on their employees.
Canadians have changed the way they use the postal service, and Canada Post feels it must change with them, while understanding the importance of service to small businesses across the country.
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CUPW: Continuing on strike.
“Last week, the government announced massive changes to Canada Post’s mandate and huge service cutbacks to the public. Now more than ever, we must come together and fight for our public post office, save jobs, and defend the services that Canadians rely on,” said CUPW n a statement on their website, October 1.
“As postal workers continue to wait for global offers from Canada Post, CUPW members, labour leaders, and allies took part in events across the country to defend the public post office. We came together to fight for good public services, good jobs in our communities, and a strong sustainable public post office,” said CUPW in a news release.
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Thursday October 2, 2025:
CANADA POST: Canada Post told their business customers on October 2 that the changes around centralized delivery and the “right-sizing” of their retail network will yield significant savings. The goal is to “provide more reliable, cost-efficient service with the goal of also providing more competitive parcel pricing”.
CUPW: On October 2, CUPW President Jan Simpson wrote in a news release: “On October 3, forty-four (44) days after CUPW last presented global offers and sixty-three (63) days since the end of the forced vote, the negotiators will finally meet with Canada Post to receive the Corporation’s latest global offers. Once received, the negotiators will review the contents of the offers and give members an update as soon as possible.”
Community mailboxes in a suburban area, Oct 2025. [Island Social Trends]
Friday October 3, 2025:
CANADA POST: Canada Post presented new offers to the Canadian Union of Postal Workers on October 3, saying the offers “enable the company’s modernization while balancing its financial realities with fairness and respect for employees”.
“The Government of Canada recently announced important measures to help renew and restore the postal service so that it aligns with the needs of the country, returns to financial sustainability and avoids taxpayer-funded government bailouts,” said Canada Post.
“The offers for the Urban and RSMC (Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers) bargaining units contain proposals to help support this transformation while minimizing the impact on our people.”
They dropped a signing bonus to help make things financially feasible for the corporation but maintained what they say are “key provisions for employees that were in the Corporation’s best and final offers presented on May 28, 2025”.
“These proposals include compounded wage increases of 13.59% over four years, while protecting what they say employees value most:
• Industry-leading defined benefit pension • Health benefits and post-retirement benefits • Vacation (up to seven weeks) and pre-retirement leave • Cost of living allowance that protects against the effects of unforeseen inflation
Door-to-door delivery of mail to every address is still part of the Canada Post mandate. [web]
Canada Post says it is “transforming the company’s operations” as directed on September 25, 2025 by the government to: • Introduce flexibility in delivery standards and frequency • Expand the use of community mailboxes • Develop a plan to protect service in rural, remote, northern and Indigenous communities after the lifting of the rural moratorium
Maintaining jobs:Canada Post says it will continue to “provide good jobs and need a strong workforce – but one that is smaller in size and more flexible in the future. The best job security comes from organizations that are strong and self-sustainable.” They are dropping the ‘job security for life’ provision which requires the company to continue to provide full pay to an employee until they decide to leave, even if there is no work for them.
Layoffs will only be used if other measures, including attrition and departure incentives, prove insufficient to achieve reduction targets, says Canada Post.
Canada Post says that 493 postal offices now in urban/suburban areas (formerly rural areas) should be removed from being classified as rural. This will allow some flexibility in reassigning resources and still protect services in rural, remote, northern and Indigenous communities.
CUPW:
On October 3, the union responded with:
“Canada Post finally presented its latest global offers to CUPW negotiators. We had expected that Canada Post would return to the table and make significant movement so that our members could ratify their offers. Instead, it chose to use the Government’s announcement last week to take major steps backwards.”
“We waited 45 days for offers that are worse than what we rejected in August. Canada Post must have known that there is no way we can accept these and is clearly wasting even more time. So why did they bother?”
“After the forced vote, Minister Patty Hajdu told the Parties that the next proposals needed to be ratifiable. Canada Post is not listening.” That vote was in July 2025.
Canada Post news section [Island Social Trends]
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