I guess it is time to move past sending letters by mail but at the same time I don't understand why a postal service needs to pay for itself. We don't ask our roads, hospitals, or schools to pay for themselves, they're simply services provided by the government, so why is mail any different?

I still get most of my bills in the mail because when I receive the statement I'll actually look at it. If it's just in email it'll sit there unread. The two bills I do receive e-bills for, my internet and cell phone serve, are fixed amounts anyway so there's nothing to review unless the billing amount changes. I guess I will need to adjust my habits.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:39 AM on September 25 [38 favorites]

The Carney government is clearly sending signals that bail-outs are over; whether or not that is a good thing for Canadian citizens is another matter entirely.
posted by Kitteh at 11:47 AM on September 25 [2 favorites]

Previously and non-Canada (March 2025) - The decline of letters: Denmark edition.
posted by Wordshore at 11:56 AM on September 25 [2 favorites]

I get paid by checks, that are sent to me by mail. Moving past letters by mail isn't an option for everyone.
posted by jordantwodelta at 11:58 AM on September 25 [18 favorites]

I wasn't aware that Canada Post still *did* home delivery. I've been on community mailboxes for years now.
posted by mrjohnmuller at 11:58 AM on September 25

I get paid by checks, that are sent to me by mail. Moving past letters by mail isn't an option for everyone.

Same. The university I work for as a contract worker has been very shitty about putting me on direct deposit because I am not an Official Queen's Employee.

I wasn't aware that Canada Post still *did* home delivery. I've been on community mailboxes for years now.

I have never known anything else in sixteen years I've lived in Ontario and Quebec. I have seen the community mailboxes but mostly in suburbs or smaller towns.
posted by Kitteh at 12:00 PM on September 25 [9 favorites]

My rural road has both community mailboxes AND home delivery. The community boxes are for new streets and homes that are offshoots of the main road.
posted by jordantwodelta at 12:00 PM on September 25 [1 favorite]

The Carney government is clearly sending signals that bail-outs are over; whether or not that is a good thing for Canadian citizens is another matter entirely.

I wonder what the Carney government thinks about Public Service in general and/or public interest.
posted by mazola at 12:02 PM on September 25 [2 favorites]

From Julie S. Lalonde, one of Canada's best and greatest modern activists:

""Canada Post is on track to lose money" Hum. Duh. It cost less than a toonie to send a letter across Canada.

"Canada Post is a service and not a business" was common knowledge until late stage capitalism brain rotted most people into think if it ain't making money for shareholders, it's failing."
posted by Kitteh at 12:06 PM on September 25 [35 favorites]

I got a little worried about the closing rural post offices part. But the Kaplan report points to the 30% of post offices classified as rural but that are now urban. So I¡¯m less worried about the post office in my tiny town getting closed. Though I¡¯m sure this is going to cause an uproar among everyone in my tiny town that doesn¡¯t read past the headline.
posted by eekernohan at 12:06 PM on September 25 [1 favorite]

I¡¯m in the MeFi Card Club, and I mail to Canada fairly often. I¡¯m sorry to hear this, but it¡¯ll be a great excuse when I¡¯m late. More seriously, I don¡¯t send nearly as many letters as I used to, and I¡¯m sorry for it; I loved sending and getting long letters; it¡¯s a different experience than an email, and the anticipation of receipt is something I really miss.
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:10 PM on September 25 [5 favorites]

FWIW, my parents¡ªseniors¡ªwere transitioned from door-to-door to community mailbox some years ago (Harper era?). They were prepared to hate on it¡­ but they liked it (!). Ironically(?) for the same reasons as the Minister got heat for at the time.

Anyway, more backstory here on the journey of Canada Post:

The Political Stunt That Killed Canada Post¡¯s Last Chance at Relevance: The Crown corporation was ready for the digital age. Then came the jackhammer [the Walrus]

posted by mazola at 12:11 PM on September 25 [1 favorite]

I may not get much mail, but the mail I do get is how I pay the bills. Not saying it would be a hardship for me to use a community mailbox, but after a while, you get to know your carriers, y'know? And care about their workers' rights?
posted by Kitteh at 12:13 PM on September 25 [9 favorites]

"Though I¡¯m sure this is going to cause an uproar among everyone in my tiny town that doesn¡¯t read past the headline."

And I bet the Venn diagram on those having the uproar vs those who have an uproar every time the cost of Canada Post to the taxpayer comes up is a circle...

I personally haven't had home delivery since 1990, community mailboxes are way more efficient for distributing mail so if it saves money but preserves the service I really don't see the issue. Perhaps those who still require home delivery can opt in for a subscription fee for the service that reflects its actual costs. If so I bet a lot of people would suddenly find that community mailboxes work just fine for them.
posted by barc0001 at 12:13 PM on September 25

I suppose we hit the snooze button on this about ten years ago, but the reasons for maintaining home delivery (accessibility, for starters) still apply.
posted by Capt. Renault at 12:13 PM on September 25 [4 favorites]

I hate these fucking vultures.
posted by rodlymight at 12:15 PM on September 25 [8 favorites]

but at the same time I don't understand why a postal service needs to pay for itself.

It doesn't. Using the numbers in the article, we're talking about switching out a 1.5 billion dollar loss (per annum) for a 1.1 billion dollar loss.
posted by philip-random at 12:18 PM on September 25 [4 favorites]

I'm against privatization but Canada Post is a shitshow. It has been poorly run for, literally, decades. I can't tell you the number of times I've caught workers leaving "attempted delivery" notices when they don't have the package on them at all. Literally dozens and dozens of times just at my house. So, so lazy and so difficult to complain or report anyone.

At the same time I know plenty of postal workers and they all say the company is intentionally poorly run and works that way because they higher ups want it to be shit so it will get privatized.

I personally never use the system anymore for outgoing items but don't control how things are sent to me so still have to deal with them on occasion.

Once it's privatized, it will only get worse, of course.
posted by dobbs at 12:28 PM on September 25 [4 favorites]

We still have door-to-door delivery on my street, but we almost lost it last time around. They cancelled the switch to neighbourhood boxes just after three streets over had been switched and they were about to install the boxes for my street. I will miss it, but I get why they are doing it. I still get most of my bills by mail because I figure why not support unionised mail carriers.
posted by fimbulvetr at 12:30 PM on September 25 [3 favorites]

As it stands right now, I actually get mail (not flyers, mail) about once every three weeks. I would be perfectly happy to see home delivery drop to twice a week. Even once a week like garbage collection would be fine for me. It would require a little more care by senders and a little bit more predictability on certain delivery schedules to ensure that certain time sensitive things arrive in tme, but they already manage nominated day delivery systems for flyers, so they can probably manage it for other sensitive mailings.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:38 PM on September 25 [4 favorites]

I guess it is time to move past sending letters by mail but at the same time I don't understand why a postal service needs to pay for itself. We don't ask our roads, hospitals, or schools to pay for themselves, they're simply services provided by the government, so why is mail any different?

I came to say essentially this. It's an essential service and if needs to be subsidized, then subsidize it. I also have only ever had home delivery (though in apartments and condos they've taken it to the mailboxes in the lobby, not to my unit) and I don't understand how community mailboxes work for anyone with any sort of mobility issue. Sure in the summer maybe you can suck it up and spend 20 minutes walking down the block and back, but I don't want my parents walking on icy or snowy sidewalks in the winter to get mail. And given the share of the population that is elderly, if they're going to let seniors keep home delivery they're going to be going past every house anyway. Why not just drop off the young folks' mail on the way to the seniors' homes?

Finally, I thought non-urgent mail already travelled by ground. This sounds environmentally much better than flying everything around. I'm fine with this.

Will business/commercial addresses also be expected to walk down the block to collect their mail?
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 12:47 PM on September 25 [6 favorites]

Once again rural & remote communities are screwed by the government.
posted by Ashwagandha at 12:49 PM on September 25 [6 favorites]

Kitteh: "The Carney government is clearly sending signals that bail-outs are over; whether or not that is a good thing for Canadian citizens is another matter entirely."

A) I don't believe that bail outs for corporations are ever off the table for Neo-liberal governments. They might not be actual cash transfers, but it might be the loosening of regulations, tax incentives, investment credits...all kinds of ways to make something work that isn't working.

B) but, at any rate, Canada Post is not a private company. It is ia Crown Corporation, and it is not "bailed out" so much as it is "funded" to deliver mail to every corner of this enormous country at an affordable rate. The fact that it has been subject to decay and rot through underfunding is just one more story about how neo-liberal governments degrade public assets and sell them for pennies on the dollar to the market. Which itself is a form of bail out. Or bail in.

C) there is no greater sign of this than to see the old post office building in downtown Vancouver now converted into the regional Amazon offices. Cynical as fuck, if you ask me. It's literally pissing on the face of the people who built that building and the service that it hosted for decades. And they still keep the facade which bears Canada's coat of arms.
posted by salishsea at 12:55 PM on September 25 [8 favorites]

And I bet the Venn diagram on those having the uproar vs those who have an uproar every time the cost of Canada Post to the taxpayer comes up is a circle...

You¡¯re probably not wrong, barc0001. Uproars are also a popular pastime, generally speaking.
posted by eekernohan at 12:55 PM on September 25

When the people running Canada Post also run Purolator and probably have their fingers in every other private delivery service, it kinda makes sense that Canada Post would constantly get the brown end of the stick.

Canada Post is probably the most embarassing thing about Canada. Okay, well there's the whole history of colonialism, the lack of truth or reconciliation, the lack of clean water wherever white people don't live, the entire RCMP, those are definitely wors. But it's up there!
posted by seanmpuckett at 12:57 PM on September 25 [3 favorites]

I don't understand how community mailboxes work for anyone with any sort of mobility issue.

CanadaPost has an accomodations program that includes home delivery, if necessary.
posted by jacquilynne at 1:13 PM on September 25 [6 favorites]

Once again rural & remote communities are screwed by the government.

This is a little off-topic but I don't undertand why the government doesn't make it policy to help rural communities by encouraging and facilitating and incentiving fully remote work as much as possible. I do not live in a rural area or small town, so maybe I'm mis-perceiving but it seems like the reason small towns are depopulating is that kids who grow up and go to university have have career goals that are for professional type work, often find that those jobs don't exist int he rural areas or very small towns. They can either move to the city, leaving the town's population shrinking and aging or they can move home and work at the hardware store or whatever. Obviously there are some professional jobs, but if the accountant is working with local clients, then a town needs one accountant. If they have one and you got your accounting certification, what are you supposed to do? So you move to a city or a bigger town and now there are fewer people eating at the local pizza place and shopping at the hardware store, and maybe the pizzeria closes and everyone goes farther away for pizza. And maybe the bowling place closes too, because there are no kids anymore, and then the arena because there aren't that many kids and actual seniors don't play seniors hockey. And guess what? Once all the businesses close, the one town accountant starts running low on work, too.

But imagine if all those workers in Ottawa who've been told they're not allowed to be remote anymore were told to go live wherever they want. We'll provide you with a secure VPN for work use. Send the MPs out campaigning and telling those voters that when their kids are done university they can get secure government jobs with defined benefits pension plans right where they live now. Tell them that their DINK kids in the city who don't want to have kids in a one bedroom apartment they pay $3000/month for can move back to their hometown or some other nearby town and keep their jobs. You don't think those people are going to be lining up around the block to vote for you? Then tell them it's not just government jobs: You're going to deal with legal barriers to remote work and you're going to incentivize companies to allow workers to work remotely. If the downtown office towers are empty you're going to turn them into housing and the people who live in those new residential buildings will patronize the local businesses. You don't have to force everyone back to the office because downtown restaurants are demanding it.

I was in Newfoundland this summer. The town of L'Anse aux Meadows on the Northern Peninsula -- a UN World Heritage Site, which gets 30,000 tourists a year, has a year round population of 15. Fifteen. Catch cod or lobster, sell stuff to tourists, or move. Those are your options. Send your kids to school in Gunner's Cove until Grade 6 and then they can spend half their day no a bus to St. Anthony for middle school and high school. That's the small city nearby. population ~2000. And if they go to college or university after that they can either come back and fish and sell to the tourists or move away. Give them reliable internet access and make it easy for them to work for employers across Canada.

And driving through all these tiny communities with their populations shrinking by the day, I was thinking "why don't they do that? it seems so obvious. And then I remembered that rescuing a town of 15 people gets you maybe 10 or 12 votes. Putting a new subway station in Toronto can get you hundreds of thousands. So that's that, I guess.

I guess the people in L'Anse Aux Meadows can pick up their mail in St. Anthony. If that post office doesn't close now that it's urban.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk therapy session.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 1:19 PM on September 25 [17 favorites]

CanadaPost has an accommodations program that includes home delivery, if necessary.

Yes, I saw that, but I mean my parents' street has 20 houses on it. Maybe7 or 8 of those houses are inhabited by people who really shouldn't be walking on icy sidewalks. It seems like if you're going to bring mail to those 7 or 8 houses, you might as well stop at the houses in between and give them their mail, too.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 1:21 PM on September 25 [4 favorites]

I guess the greeting card industry doesn't have a very powerful lobby.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:29 PM on September 25 [3 favorites]

I don't see why they can't just switch to once or twice per week home delivery instead of community mailboxes. Surely that would save plenty of money and be a lot more convenient for people (the $400m saving doesn't account for everyone else's time to go to the community mailbox of course).
posted by ssg at 1:30 PM on September 25 [4 favorites]

Add me to the chorus that thinks Canada Post shouldn't have to turn a profit because it's a service.

That said, every month I have to empty my community mailbox because it is filled with physical spam. If my mailbox was just a paper shredder, I don't know if I would even notice.

I don't get much in paper form these days, with everything having been switched to digital-only whenever I get the choice.

That being said, I don't think I'm a good representative of the average Canadian.
posted by Dark Messiah at 1:32 PM on September 25 [3 favorites]

I don't see why they can't just switch to once or twice per week home delivery instead of community mailboxes. Surely that would save plenty of money and be a lot more convenient for people (the $400m saving doesn't account for everyone else's time to go to the community mailbox of course).


Add me to the chorus that thinks Canada Post shouldn't have to turn a profit because it's a service.

That said, every month I have to empty my community mailbox because it is filled with physical spam.

These two are linked, I think. When it gets privatized (and it will -- the Conservatives have been waiting on this for a while now), some lucky corporate friend of theirs will swoop in and buy the assets paid for by generations of Canadians for pennies on the dollar. Huge sorting plants and equipment, a fleet of trucks big and small, currently being modernized and electrified, and community mailboxes to be used as an ad distribution platform.

So short-term, Canada Post will likely resume its expansion of community mailboxes because it'll make it harder for the union to negotiate future contracts. And long-term, more boxes make it more palatable for some big distributor or courier to buy the whole thing instead of selling off its functions piecemeal.

Either way, us postal workers are screwed; likely in both current contracts and future employment. And it's being given to us as a fait accompli after a year of government and management taking away our negotiations at every turn. No one can say with a straight face that this Liberal government gives labour a fair shake.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 2:25 PM on September 25 [9 favorites]

CUPW has launched a nationwide strike. Toronto Star.
posted by russilwvong at 3:11 PM on September 25 [3 favorites]

I¡¯m not opposed to community mailboxes as long as they¡¯re within a 15 minute walk of everyone along accessible pedestrian infrastructure.
posted by congen at 4:04 PM on September 25 [4 favorites]

In my 50+ years of living in Canada, I think I have had door to door delivery for about two. Most rural addresses either are serviced by community boxes or PO boxes (at the post office building). Other than parcel pickup, this mostly works. If you work in another town, it can be difficult to pick up a package during regular PO hours.

Some areas have a Postal "Outlet" where you can get most of the services of a Post Officem These are often open later, and actually facilitate people accessing service.

It must be nice to get mail to your door, but honestly, other than for people with accessibility issues, I really find it hard to feel for those who will lose this privilege.

The service is costing us money. We need to find ways to make it lose less, and remain viable. I believe we will look back fondly on twice a week delivery to community boxes if we see the service privatized.

For those in rural areas, Canada Post is an essential part of accessing many things that urban dwellers may take for granted. Recently, that was buying a new cel phone for me. I'm just glad it arrived before this latest service disruption...
posted by snoboy at 4:18 PM on September 25 [2 favorites]

Hey, I will always be on the side of the union. Good on them. I will need to figure out how to get this month's cheque though!
posted by Kitteh at 4:21 PM on September 25 [5 favorites]

I¡¯m not opposed to community mailboxes as long as they¡¯re within a 15 minute walk of everyone along accessible pedestrian infrastructure.

I think this seems not very aware of all the barriers that different people face. I already mentioned that elderly people walking 15 minutes on icy or snowy sidewalks is absolutely not safe. Something that is a 15 minute walk for one person can be longer for others, but even assuming 15 minutes away, expecting people to take half an hour out of their day to check the mail seems like a lot. Even apart from the time...i mean i dont want to throw -ist accusations around willy nilly but it's quite ableist to assume everyone can walk for 30 minutes (or more) as long as there's a sidewalk. And of course, there are many many things that can keep people housebound, from health issues to caregiving responsibilities to mental health issues.

I think community mailboxes are problematic, but if they are going ti be used (and obviouslybtheyre already used), i dont think anyone should have to walk any farther than to the end of their block. Put one on every second corner.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 4:25 PM on September 25 [14 favorites]

I wasn't aware that Canada Post still *did* home delivery. I've been on community mailboxes for years now.

Because I've generally lived in old, uh, rundown neighbourhoods I've always had to the door delivery. It's just the fancy neighbourhoods that have community boxes.

Yes, I saw that, but I mean my parents' street has 20 houses on it. Maybe7 or 8 of those houses are inhabited by people who really shouldn't be walking on icy sidewalks. It seems like if you're going to bring mail to those 7 or 8 houses, you might as well stop at the houses in between and give them their mail, too.

It takes time to walk to the door, manipulate the mailbox, and then walk back to the street. Also this increases the amount of mail that needs to be carried increasing work load. The difference between delivering to 8 houses on a block and 20 is probably twice as many delivery hours.

No one can say with a straight face that this Liberal government gives labour a fair shake.

I don't think anyone expected that. They got elected because the alternative for labour, and basically everything else, would have been worse.
posted by Mitheral at 4:36 PM on September 25 [5 favorites]

Also, hot tip for those who are sick of flyers: How to stop admail.

Hopefully this will remain relevant...
posted by snoboy at 4:46 PM on September 25

¡ú I¡¯m not opposed to community mailboxes as long as they¡¯re within a 15 minute walk of everyone

Five minute, max.

The annoying thing is that Canada Post has a legal monopoly on delivering all packages under 500 g, and they absolutely don't use it. The multiple delivery vans than speed through our neighbourhood would be much reduced if only they enforced it lightly.

I was a dedicated ePost user. It was great for paying bills. We learned from a Mefite who worked on it that it had problems, but getting rid of it was a blow. And the self-service shipping kiosks at some post offices were great. They were scrapped within a year, of course.

Unlike the USA, Canada doesn't have flat-rate delivery. Mailing cost depends on distance and destination: if it's going to a rural address (postal codes with second character 0) it can cost a lot more. A whole bunch of the residential areas just outside Ottawa are designated rural, and it would typically add $3 or more for a small package compared to me shipping to an address in the NCR proper.
posted by scruss at 4:46 PM on September 25 [5 favorites]

Once again rural & remote communities are screwed by the government.

Rural and remote communities do their share of screwing themselves, I must say
posted by Didymus at 5:21 PM on September 25 [3 favorites]

In the context of Canada Post? No, that's the government. And as a gentle reminder, not all rural and remote communities fit into political stereotypes.
posted by Ashwagandha at 5:31 PM on September 25 [4 favorites]

I wonder how much this was all set in motion by international agreements set up decades ago through the Universal Postal Union, which more recently gave China a huge pricing advantage through cheap shipping that Canada Post (and other receiving postal services) ultimately paid for.
Also see The Postal Illuminati.
posted by piyushnz at 5:31 PM on September 25 [2 favorites]

I didn't bother reading the article, but how much money does this actually save the country?
posted by polymodus at 5:52 PM on September 25

not all rural and remote communities fit into political stereotypes.

I know and live it

In the context of Canada Post, I'm just speaking what I saw and heard when I joined a picket in my community in Feb

Mostly people who gave zero fucks about ths striking posties, couldn't be knackered to understand the issues, no support. And they'll vote for the next cons, guaranteed.
posted by Didymus at 6:01 PM on September 25 [2 favorites]

For those in rural areas, Canada Post is an essential part of accessing many things that urban dwellers may take for granted.

So, how is this reflected in the way rural Canadians vote? I¡¯m ignorant here, and it¡¯s an honest question. Canadian politics have their own weird quirks, I expect.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:13 PM on September 25 [1 favorite]

I didn't bother reading the article, but how much money does this actually save the country?

quote:

and moving the remaining Canadians to the communal system will save the corporation $400 million annually, a government statement said.
posted by philip-random at 6:41 PM on September 25 [2 favorites]

Regarding rural voters, we all know not all votes are cast in a logical way, priorities could be different or they can just value something else more.

Actual mail volume is on the way down and not ever going back up, packages maybe could have kept it afloat (they used to be the best low-cost option) but it seems they really got screwed when fast & low cost deliveries companies started operating and took over a lot of their volume. Now we all know you can't compete with a non-unionized poorly paid and abused workforce, especially if you need to service all of Canada and not only metro areas close to your distribution center. And since those companies (or their clients who do the actual shipping) rely on CP to deliver everywhere else.... a levy on each package they deliver would be a good idea to compensate CP for having to run the unprofitable part a tax-payer cost. We'll end up paying it anyway, either as a taxpayer or as somebody getting delivery. (although my delivery volume is way down since I stopped using Amazon).

I'm hard no on privatizing crown corporations (see Air Canada) but "it's a service" is not a justification to throw unreasonable heaps of money at something we use less & less. Community boxes & reducing frequency seem reasonable to me in the context that we're getting less and less mail.

It sucks for CP workers, really sucks, but something has to change somewhere.
posted by WaterAndPixels at 6:59 PM on September 25 [1 favorite]

How are the changes to mail delivery going to affect postal voting?

Will this result in reduced postal voting by people who can't get to the community mailboxes because of being elderly; chronically ill; disabled; childcare responsibilities; eldercare responsibilities?
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 7:18 PM on September 25 [6 favorites]

Yeah, on second thought, community mailboxes should definitely be within a 5 min accessible walk max, which includes smooth and cleared pedestrian walkways and safe crossings.

Let the re-org be an active transport revolution!

More realistically though, cracking down on gig labour exploitation, enforcing the existing small parcel monopoly rules, and ending subsidies to Chinese shippers would buy a lot of time and money for Canada Post and improve jobs here. I think. Are there any reports that run the numbers on these scenarios?
posted by congen at 7:54 PM on September 25 [3 favorites]

My mother is 84 years old. Her mobility is poor. She sometimes loses track of time and during the winter months will sometimes go two weeks or more without leaving her home. She lives in Saskatchewan, where -20 degrees C is not remarkable during the winter. She has a long walkway from her house to the sidewalk. I know that if she had community mailboxes on her street, she'd try to make the trek to get her mail, because she likes interacting with the neighbours. I also know she'd sometimes let a week or more go by without checking her mailbox. She would not ask for extra accommodation like home delivery if everyone else was getting their mail at the community mailbox. So, this would mean that she would not be regularly receiving her mail, some of it pertaining to medical concerns. I already worry about her falling in the winter. This will just add to her risk.
posted by alltomorrowsparties at 10:42 PM on September 25 [8 favorites]

we're in an apartment building so our mailboxes are perforce community mailboxes. I don't think we've checked ours in three months or so, lolsob. (This is, however, not related to mobility issues, just to personal dysfunction/mental health stuff; having the box closer wouldn't help.)
posted by adrienneleigh at 10:49 PM on September 25 [1 favorite]

I have community box delivery, it's five houses away from my house for all of the houses on our short street (nobody would be more than about seven or eight houses away, I don't think?) - this is an urban area so I don't think anybody has more than a two-minute walk. It seems fine. I never got to know my mail delivery person when we had home delivery. I don't mind that or having staggered schedules so we only get mail a few times a week (which honestly seems to unofficially be happening now).
posted by joannemerriam at 6:30 AM on September 26

As I mentioned up thread, I have home delivery, but not everyone on my rural road does. The closest community box is 2 kilometers from my house - and as much as 5 to 8 km for other people.

My mail delivery person is not at all good at their job, and in fact ripped the front door off of my mailbox earlier this year and didn't both to tell me about it. But I don't want to lose home delivery, and I don't want them to lose their job.
posted by jordantwodelta at 6:46 AM on September 26 [2 favorites]

Guess who opted to get their new Canadian passport by mail roughly 20 minutes before this strike was called?

That would be the same guy who also needs to be less smug about massively improved AliExpress delivery time to Canada due to that USA postal fubar because ¡ª somehow ¡ª many of my packages were using Canada Post Expedited for the last mile delivery. Either they're using the usual white delivery vans and are making fake Canada Post labels, or they've somehow conned CPC into delivering things at below cost. These items are showing Expedited Parcel delivery from Mississauga to Toronto for a total order value of less than the smallest Expedited cost (which was about $8 a few years back).

Strikers were out in force on Ashtonbee this morning, which makes it two picket lines on a short street: one Canada Post, the other support workers at Centennial College. Quite festive, but for the wrong reasons.
posted by scruss at 8:06 AM on September 26 [3 favorites]

How are the changes to mail delivery going to affect postal voting?

They make it harder in that there will be reduced delivery service. They make it easier in that community boxes all have an outgoing slot. It has been kinda irritating that all the street outgoing boxes were removed forcing a trip to the local drug store/post office to mail anything out.
posted by Mitheral at 8:24 AM on September 26 [2 favorites]

> I don't mind that or having staggered schedules so we only get mail a few times a week (which honestly seems to unofficially be happening now)

Yeah, we¡¯ve only been getting delivery once or twice a week at our community mailbox for years now. There was no announcement about it, but that¡¯s the reality. Management is simply asking more of workers than is possible, and that just shows up in delivery frequency and timing.
posted by congen at 8:56 AM on September 26 [1 favorite]

Does anyone know if the postal union is doing a complete work stoppage, or some sort of rolling strike situation that allows for important mail to continue being delivered? Because I gotta say, keeping people from getting their paycheques or mail-prescriptions is not a super good way to engender sympathy to your cause. I may be in the minority here, but if there are accommodations in place for people who can't make it out to community mailboxes, I don't see the big deal in that becoming the norm. Like I said upthread, plenty of places in Canada have been fully on the community mailboxes for years now. It's fine. I'm seeing a lot of people grousing about lack of funding to Canada Post, but not a whole lot of people volunteering to pay more taxes to make it happen. Maybe they should slap a surcharge on anything sent via the private delivery services like Amazon or UPS and divert that money to Canada Post.
posted by mrjohnmuller at 9:40 AM on September 26 [1 favorite]

I was reading this morning that government cheques will still be distributed by postal workers.

We're a society addicted to convenience; we say we want these services, but then when we have to pay, we get up in our feels. It's irritated Shepherd so much that he wants to put a sign in front of our house that says I AM OKAY WITH PAYING TAXES BECAUSE THAT'S HOW WE GET SERVICES.
posted by Kitteh at 9:51 AM on September 26 [5 favorites]

Does anyone know if the postal union is doing a complete work stoppage, or some sort of rolling strike situation that allows for important mail to continue being delivered?

Full strike, and as with all past strikes, the government cheques are delivered via a special arrangement between the union and Canada Post. And if it should carry on that long, we the union will (as always) take care of the Letters to Santa.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 12:03 PM on September 26 [3 favorites]

I¡¯m a senior with a long-term mobility disability and chronic pain. I am literally apartment-bound for the majority of the winter, because I cannot physically handle the dangerous icy sidewalks, huge snow banks and sub-zero temperatures with a cane or walker/rollator.

I am also now screwed because I just found out that a significant (non-govt) payment check that I was expecting, is now stuck in the Canada Post strike. I had asked them if they could do auto-deposit, but they told me that ¡°they don¡¯t do that¡±; however now they will be forced to re-issue the check and arrange to Fedex it to me next week; at significantly more cost than an auto-deposit would entail. SMH.
posted by Jade Dragon at 1:29 PM on September 26 [4 favorites]

but not a whole lot of people volunteering to pay more taxes to make it happen

? I'm not sure what circles you travel in, but lots and lots of people I know are of the opinion that they're happy to pay taxes and even higher taxes than currently exist to preserve or improve public services or to support people who are vulnerable in various ways. I feel like there are periodically polls showing this. I don't think I've ever heard anyone mention CanadaPost specficially with regard to paying taxes, but I don't see any particular reason it would be an exception.

Also, if lack of access to reliable, affordable and flat-rate-regardless-of-distance shipping is not a barrier to interprovincial trade, I don't know what is.

I have to returns for online purchases that I selected CanadaPost options for. Now i'm not sure what to do.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:54 PM on September 26 [3 favorites]

lots of people I know are of the opinion that they're happy to pay taxes and even higher taxes than currently exist to preserve or improve public services or to support people who are vulnerable in various ways. I feel like there are periodically polls showing this.

A recent IPSOS poll found that 67% of respondents described taxation in Canada as "Too High", 29% chose "Acceptable Level", and only 2% chose "Too low".

Also, remember the great carbon tax freakout?

I think you'll find that the public appetite for increased taxation in Canada is actually pretty miniscule.
posted by mrjohnmuller at 3:59 AM on September 27 [2 favorites]

I take some of those IPSOS polls. I¡¯m one of the 2% who said taxes are too low. Also said they should tax assets not income but there wasn¡¯t a check box for that.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:53 AM on September 27 [4 favorites]

More than half of Canadians are willing to pay higher taxes to tackle specific challenges, a new Research Co. poll has found.

In Canada, 69 per cent of respondents said the government should tax the rich more than it currently does to support the poor.

Older polls:

Canadians would pay higher taxes for specific services, CCPA survey finds

Canadians OK with higher taxes to fight inequality


Also, remember the great carbon tax freakout?

We still have that tax here in Quebec.
posted by jordantwodelta at 7:49 AM on September 27 [4 favorites]

¡ú flat-rate-regardless-of-distance shipping

We don't have that in Canada, unless it's letter mail or a flat rate box. Rates are based on distance and mode, plus CPC's secret sauce. A package shipped inside Toronto would be just over $15; to Ottawa: $19; to NE BC (Tumbler Ridge): $27. Then the weirdness really kicks in: it's $17.50 to Montreal (further than Ottawa) but $21 to rural Ontario near Ottawa.

You don't want to know what the fastest Canada Post rate Toronto to Yellowknife is. I had a customer who needed a replacement sensor for the arsenic monitoring system at Giant Mine.
posted by scruss at 9:13 AM on September 27 [4 favorites]

I don't think it's a smart idea to take an already fragile electronic communication system and TEST it by further crippling systems that have worked for eons. Pony Express and all that. WE need mail...more than ever now. Privacy and safety and all that.
posted by lextex at 3:28 PM on September 27 [3 favorites]

I thought this might be a helpful perspective:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadaPostCorp/comments/1nqhbtj/why_canada_post_is_failing/?chainedPosts=t3_1mkeo0n
posted by sneebler at 12:06 PM on September 30 [2 favorites]

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