Canada Post laying off 50 managers in Ottawa and across Canada amid ‘significant financial’ challenges

The Canada Post logo is seen on the outside the company's Pacific Processing Centre, in Richmond, B.C., on Thursday June 1, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Canada Post is laying off dozens of managers in Ottawa and across Canada as it deals with “significant financial and operational challenges,” according to the Crown corporation.

As part of a corporate-wide restructuring, almost 50 managers were laid off at Canada Post this week.

“About half of the impacted management employees were located in Ottawa, with others located in Toronto and across the country,” Canada Post said in a statement to CTV News Ottawa.

“These decisions are never easy, but they reflect the critical financial situation the corporation is currently facing.”

Canada Post also completed a restructuring of its senior executive in January, eliminating 20 per cent of senior positions.

News of the layoffs comes weeks after the federal government announced it was providing a $1-billion loan to Canada Post to help the Crown corporation continue operating. Canada Post has said it has incurred significant annual losses since 2018, “fuelled by rapid changes in the postal and parcel delivery sectors, high labour costs and legacy regulatory measures.”

Canada Post says a management hiring freeze has been in place since last year, and it is reviewing vacant positions when employees retire or leave the company voluntarily.

“Our focus is on ensuring we have a strong team in place to transform the company to better serve the changing needs of Canadians,” Canada Post said. “We will continue to evaluate our labour costs as we move forward and work with the government on the urgent changes needed to return the organization to solvency.

“This follows a number of measures to reduce costs and closely monitor spending across the organization over the last two years. The layoffs will not impact service to Canadians.”

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) says the managers were not unionized members.

“Since we began bargaining with Canada Post, the union has questioned why postal workers have been asked to bear the responsibility of fixing the financial situation the Corporation finds itself in when Canada Post has a sizeable number of senior executives who make significantly more money and receive bonuses,” CUPW said in a statement to CTV News.

“Canada Post came to the bargaining table with a long list of rollbacks including two-tier pensions, reduced job security, and more part-time work.”

Canada Post says it continues to work through “higher volumes of mail” following the strike by unionized workers at the end of 2024. More than 55,000 workers went on strike on Nov. 15, shutting down mail service across the country. The strike ended on Dec. 17 when the Canada Industrial Relations Board issued a order to end the labour dispute.

With files from The Canadian Press and CTV’s Pat Foran