In the wake of renewed strike action by Canada Post workers, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Saturday morning that “significant changes” need to be made to make it “viable” as an organization.
Mail came to a halt on Thursday evening as the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) walked off the job in response to the federal government’s proposed changes to Canada Post.
During a press conference in London, Carney stated that the Crown Corporation is hemorrhaging money, but plans have been put forward to reduce losses.
“At the moment, Canada Post is not viable. They lose more than $10 million a day — $10,000,000 a day, day after day. The situation needs to change,” he said.
“The government has indicated the corporation should move forward with some changes that are the start of a path towards viability,” the Prime Minister added.
Earlier this year, the federal government provided a $ 1-billion injection to the corporation to keep it operational. In the second quarter of 2025, Canada Post reported a loss of $407 million.
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The government’s cost-saving suggestions, which were announced Friday by Joël Lightbound, the minister of government transformation, public works and procurement, include plans to adjust standards so that non-urgent mail can be transported by ground instead of air. They also recommend converting four million addresses to community mailboxes and lifting a more than 30-year-old moratorium on rural post offices, which the government referred to as a “long-standing barrier” to reform.
In response, Jan Simpson, national president of CUPW, a statement saying Lightbound’s announcement was “a direct assault on our public post office, the public’s right to participate in political processes, and good, unionized jobs across the country.”
The union also claims that the government has failed to fulfill its promise to conduct the required public consultations as part of its review of the postal service.
“With no warning and no chance for public input, the Government has announced sweeping service cutbacks. We can’t let them get away with it,” Simpson’s statement said.
“That’s why we are calling on the Government to put an immediate stop to all service cuts to Canada Post. Before implementing any changes to Canada Post’s mandate, the Government must allow the public to have its say.”
The latest action follows a year of ongoing negotiations between the union and the Crown corporation, which have thus far failed to reach an agreement.
Marvin Ryder, marketing and entrepreneurship professor at McMaster University, told Global News that the government’s cost-cutting measures could help Canada Post save hundreds of millions of dollars.
“Canada Post is bleeding cash at this point,” he said, “it’s looking like it’s going to lose at least one and a half billion in 2025… These changes don’t get the books balanced, but could mean five- to six-hundred-million dollars in savings.”
Ryder said CUPW is reacting with a strike because the “only way” to implement the government’s measures is by downsizing the workforce and that they have been given 45 days to implement a plan.
He also noted that many small businesses rely on and prefer to use Canada Post for parcel deliveries because it is cheaper than private couriers and has a mandate to serve every location in Canada, including small and remote rural communities.
The union is concerned that, by cutting door-to-door deliveries in favour of community mailboxes, people living in remote regions will have to travel further to collect their mail. It said this will also lower property values and pose safety risks for seniors and those with mobility issues.
Jennifer Savage, CUPW national director, Pacific Region, told Global’s Angela Jung on Saturday that Canada Post has failed to put forward a viable solution for its workers, one that “respects their health and safety…with improvements to benefits, to work methods, their cost of living,” she said, adding that members are “angry” and “frustrated.”
CUPW has argued that Canada Post’s claims of dire finances are overblown and could be solved with increasing stamp rates and reducing management staffing and salaries — moves Lightbound said Thursday he’s also pushing for.
— With files from Global News’ Uday Rana and Sean Boynton
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
