Delivery issue: Why Canada Post ‘must change’ to avoid collapse
Canada Post is continuing to bleed money amid fundamental shifts in mail delivery, pushing the Crown corporation to signal that something will have to change if it wants to right the ship.
Canada Post reported a $748-million annual loss before taxes for 2023 on Friday, the postal service’s sixth consecutive year in the red.
In a statement accompanying the result, the organization was blunt about the challenges facing a modern-day mail carrier.
Canada Post noted that back in 2006, the average Canadian household was receiving some seven letters a week; that’s down to just two in 2023, following the rapid rise of email and other forms of internet communication.
Alongside a decline in this transactional mail segment, Canada Post also posted revenue declines in its parcel and direct marketing services in 2023.
Parcel delivery had been a saving grace for the mail service in recent years amid a boom in Canadians shopping online, particularly in the pandemic.
But Canada Post’s share of that market is eroding too: where it once delivered nearly two-thirds of parcels pre-pandemic, the rise of new competitors in the space meant the Crown corporation handled less than a third of all packages last year.
In a bid to boost revenue flows heading into the postal service’s coffers, Canada Post confirmed a previous announcement Monday that the cost of a single stamp would rise seven cents to just under a dollar when bought in a booklet.
But that move – the third price hike on stamps in roughly a decade – will not be enough to avoid the need for structural changes to keep Canada Post’s operations viable, according to experts who spoke to Global News and the mail carrier itself.
“Canadians understand our business model must change. They can
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