CFIB calling on federal government to intervene as Canada Post strike continues

Canada Post strike impacting small businesses Brianna Solberg with the CFIB discusses how the Canada Post strike is impacting small businesses in the country.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses (CFIB) is calling on the federal government to step in and get Canada Post employees back to work.

Brianna Solberg, director of provincial affairs with CFIB, said a letter has been sent to the federal government calling on them to get involved and bring a stop to the Canada Post strike.

The second week of the strike is underway, and Solberg said it has really started to impact small and medium-sized businesses.

"It's already impacted their operations, and they're dealing with rising costs and a lot of economic uncertainty as it is. So, we've seen delayed shipments, businesses who are unable to ship goods to their customers, not to mention those who receive payments by mail haven't been getting paid. So, they can't pay their taxes, they can't pay their employees, which is extremely stressful headed into the holiday season," said Solberg.

She had hoped this situation would have been resolved already, but since it hasn't, she wants to see the feds do what they recently did with the Vancouver and Montreal port strikes.

"When these things start to impact the economy at large, we may need government intervention."

Solberg said a recent CFIB survey found 75 per cent of their members would be impacted by this strike and that eight in 10 businesses still rely on the mail system to receive payments, pay bills, and send paychecks.

"I think many businesses have tried to switch to other carriers when they can, but it comes at a significant cost, and in rural areas, that's often not an option. In rural areas, they really rely on Canada Post, and so they're left with just uncertainty going forward."

Post-pandemic, Solberg said several businesses switched online to try and compete with the likes of big-name businesses like Amazon.

Now with so much uncertainty, she said many are asking Manitobans to still support local by visiting in store while this strike continues.

"I think the communication now for businesses is we're trying our best, but if possible, we'd love to see you come out and shop in person. We're just as happy to fill up orders that way. We hope to see people continue to shop local."