Letter: Hands off my post office

On October 22, Canada Post shared part of its transformation plan with its employees, revealing the facilities and areas affected by the end of home delivery and the transition to community mailboxes. These changes, which will be implemented nationwide, will be rolled out over a five-year period and are expected to be completed by 2031.

However, this announcement was made with a glaring lack of sensitivity. At some facilities, local management limited itself to distributing the discussion guide it had been provided, without offering any further explanation. Yet, in some sectors, up to 40 percent of the workforce could lose their jobs. Such an approach overlooks the human impact of these decisions, which risk causing distress and fuelling a climate of anxiety among the affected workers.

Unfortunately, this announcement comes as no surprise. In September 2025, the Crown corporation received the federal government‘s approval to proceed with significant service cuts, a decision justified by the repeated financial losses recorded in recent years.

Job cuts have, in fact, already begun. A few weeks ago, just over 90 part-time clerk positions were eliminated at the Montreal sorting center. Most of the affected workers were reassigned to other facilities or assigned to weekend package delivery. Elsewhere in the country, the Ottawa sorting center was simply shut down.

The La Prairie facility is the first in the Montreal metropolitan area to discontinue home delivery. So far, the rollout of community mailboxes has proceeded without any meaningful communication with the parties involved. No discussions have taken place with the local joint committee or with union representatives. Municipal officials and federal MPs are also facing a lack of cooperation. Several concerns have been raised regarding the safety of the selected locations, particularly when they are near school routes, bike paths, or bus stops.

Our Crown corporation’s mandate is to provide the public with universal and affordable services while creating quality jobs for Canadians, all with a view toward financial self-sufficiency. To some, the successive deficits observed in recent years give the impression of outright self-sabotage. Yet concrete and relatively simple measures could have helped limit the losses. 

For example, the 26% increase in the price of postage stamps in January 2025 generated nearly $200 million in additional revenue as early as the first quarter following its implementation. Why did it take so long to adopt a measure already in place in most postal services around the world?

Unfortunately, the process of transforming our cherished public postal service now seems well underway. Yet all of this could still be avoided if Canada Post chose to diversify its operations to generate new sources of revenue, as many postal services around the world are already doing. Focusing on expansion rather than retrenchment would allow Canada Post to leverage the expertise of its staff, preserve quality jobs, and maintain a strong public service that benefits the entire population.

At a time when the gig economy is growing rapidly and our public institutions are under severe strain, it is more important than ever to defend our state-owned enterprise and preserve a strong, accessible public postal service that serves our communities.

– Emilie Garneau and Pierre Wilson, organizers of the “Hands Off My Post Office” campaign in the Greater Montreal area