Canada Post submits overhaul plan to the federal government

A woman checks for mail at her community mailbox in the Pointe-Claire neighbourhood of Montreal on Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi

OTTAWA -- Canada Post has submitted its plan to the federal government to transform its struggling business model into a financially sustainable postal service.

Procurement Minister Joel Lightbound unveiled a suite of changes to the postal service’s mandate in late September and gave the Crown corporation 45 days to deliver a plan to right the ship.

Those changes included adjusting mail delivery standards, expanding community mailboxes to more Canadians and ending the moratorium on closing rural post offices.

Canada Post confirmed Monday it submitted that plan to Lightbound at the end of last week but the post office said in a news release it will only share details of the proposal after it has received Ottawa’s sign-off.

A sharp decline in letter mail and stiff competition in parcel delivery have left Canada Post’s finances in dire straights. Public filings show the Crown corporation has racked up billions of dollars in annual losses over recent years, compounded by an protracted labour dispute with the postal service’s largest union.

In September, Lightbound positioned the changes as necessary to avoid further federal bailouts after a $1 billion injection of funds earlier this year. He told a parliamentary committee last month that Canada Post had to “right-size” itself for the realities of modern mail delivery, but said he would leave specifics of job cuts up to the corporation’s leadership.

Canada Post announced in a letter to workers late last month that it was laying off an unspecified number of managers as part of a corporate restructuring that began earlier this year.

Laurent de Casanove, Lightbound’s director of communications, confirmed in an email Monday that the minister received the plan and is “reviewing it carefully.”

Canada Post CEO Doug Ettinger said in a statement the plan would modernize the post office while protecting a service Canadians rely on.

“Canadians deserve a postal service that is strong, stable and focused on meeting their changing needs, and we are focused on delivering that,” he said.

Canada Post’s turnaround plan will ensure Canadians in rural, remote and Indigenous communities continue to receive accessible postal service, the company said in its statement. During his committee appearance last month, Lightbound sought to assuage MPs’ concerns that the move to allow rural post offices to close could compromise critical service in those regions.

Efforts to turn Canada Post’s struggling business around come as the company continues the two-year saga of collective bargaining with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. The union representing some 55,000 postal workers remains on a rotating strike heading into the busy holiday season -- a critical period for Canada Post’s business.

CUPW has previously denounced changes to Canada Post’s mandate, arguing Ottawa’s repeated interventions have set back efforts to strike a new deal.

The two parties have been back at the bargaining table since Oct. 30.

Union president Jan Simpson said in a bulletin to members Friday that the two sides are working with federal mediators to “explore negotiated solutions that both parties can agree to.”

Canada Post said in a statement the same day that the company remains “committed to reaching negotiated agreements so that we can provide certainty and stability for customers, our employees, and all Canadians.”

The Crown corporation’s most recent offer to the union presented on Oct. 3 included provisions for job losses and waived a signing bonus that was included in the previous proposal in May. It otherwise included the same offer to hike wages by 13.59 per cent over four years -- figures that fall short of a union ask for a 19 per cent pay raise in August.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 10, 2025.