Switch to community mailboxes expected to take 5 years, Canada Post says<\/p>\n
Published 2:17 pm Friday, April 17, 2026<\/p>\n
Canada Post says it expects the transition of the remaining addresses to community mailboxes to take about five years.<\/p>\n
The Crown corporation announced Thursday the latest details on the switch to community mailboxes. The national conversion program is expected to take five years, with different addresses moving to community mailboxes each year, and the first 13 communities have been announced.<\/p>\n
The communities in New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and B.C.<\/a> represent 136,000 address that will be converted to community mailboxes in late 2026 and early 2027. The only western Canadian communities listed are Mission, Abbotsford, the city and district of North Vancouver and West Vancouver.<\/p>\n Most of the addresses selected in this first phase are adjacent to areas that already receive delivery to community mailboxes.<\/p>\n \u201cCanada Post understands converting dense urban core areas poses additional challenges. These areas will be addressed in later stages of the multi-year conversion program.\u201d<\/p>\n Canada Post says converting an address to a community mailbox from door-to-door delivery typically takes months.<\/p>\n Door-to-door delivery costs about 75 per cent more than delivery to a community mailbox at $284 per address compared to $162, according to the May 2025 Industrial Inquiry Commission\u2019s report<\/a> into the state of Canada Post.<\/p>\n The report was bleak, noting that the Crown corporation was facing an existential crisis and is \u201ceffectively insolvent, or bankrupt. As part of the report, commissioner William Kaplan recommended ending door-to-door home delivery and lifting the moratoriums on rural post office closures and community mailbox conversions.<\/p>\n The Crown corporation will be working with the communities as it identifies suitable locations for the community mailboxes. Canada Post will also be notifying residents of the upcoming change in mail delivery.<\/p>\n Canada Post announced March 30<\/a> it would be taking the next steps to convert the country\u2019s remaining 25 per cent of addresses that still receive door-to-door delivery to community mailboxes.<\/p>\n Federal Government Transformation Minister Jo\u00ebl Lightbound, in September 2025, accepted all the recommendations in the Industrial Inquiry Commission report and directed Canada Post to modernize to stabilize its <\/a>finances<\/a>. That included the remaining community mailbox conversions.<\/p>\n