Should your mail be delivered daily? Canada Post wants Ottawa to rethink its mandate
Should your mail be delivered daily? Canada Post wants Ottawa to rethink its mandate
Canada Post wants the federal government to consider changing the legislation that requires it to deliver letter mail daily— a mandate the Crown corporation says no longer reflects modern realities and is causing it to lose money.
"If you have a community mailbox, a lot of people check it once or twice a week," said Jon Hamilton, vice-president of communications at Canada Post.
"We need to work with government to ensure the regulatory framework aligns with today's needs."
The postal charter, which dictates how frequently Canada Post delivers mail, hasn't undergone any significant changes since it was created in 2009, Hamilton said.
Unlike some other Crown corporations, Canada Post isn't funded by taxpayers. It needs to sustain itself through profits.
That's a load of horseshit. The postal service should be funded by Canadians, if for no other reason than Canada is a BIG country so many locations don't have access to other forms of delivery.
The feds need to stop funding big oil and start funding services that are important to the people instead.
But how will the oil execs afford their next yacht? :( And think about all the yacht makers that are going to go out of business.
Cant forget all the private jet manufacturers!
This is the neoliberal approach and it destroys necessary services while shoveling money into private competitors.
No shit it loses money. It’s a service. Not everything has to be run at a profit. Bring weekend and the return of direct to door delivery. Provide better shipping rates and services, combine parcel and mail delivery. Only deliver mail when critical items arrive or with packages.
I feel like there are creative ways to balance it, but they’ll always run at a loss if they have to cover this giant country and provide equal services. I’m fine with that, it’s a great use of taxes.
From the article:
Unlike some other Crown corporations, Canada Post isn't funded by taxpayers. It needs to sustain itself through profits.
So, while I agree it should be a service funded by taxes, that's not how it's set up.
I thought there was strict regulation to ensure crown corporations operated at a 0 profit margin. They can do things like employee bonuses or salary increases to eat up any profits but can’t operate under the premise of “making money”?
I only check it once every two weeks, so it wouldn't affect me negatively.
Why are we still paying a fuck ton of money and wasting a shit ton of paper delivering unsolicited commercial mail - can we please deal with that first and realize that a post service is a public service and doesn't need to be profitable?
To the actual question... no - the mail exists for bills and rare correspondences, I don't think anyone would notice if, for instance, we switched to Friday only deliveries.
You're not paying a fuck ton of money. Canada Post is a separate entity from the government and is a self-sustaining business that receives no money from the government.
Unsolicited commercial mail is paid for by the company sending it. All mail is paid for by the people sending it. It doesn't cost you anything to receive it. And when it really matters, like those "rare" correspondence that contain your drivers license, or insurance slips, or your health card, or your doctor's appointments, or even your small parcels from eBay, I'm sure you want those as soon as they come in. You should care about regular mail delivery. Because once you lose it, it's never coming back.
I pay for commercial mail by needing to constantly empty my overflowing mailbox and trying to make sure I don't lose any important mail in the process. And we, collectively, pay for spam mail because of the externalities on our society including having all that waste paper collected and recycled (and recycling isn't free or 100% effective).
Externalities are a cost we can't ignore - I'd rather pay tax dollars to support a good service than subsidize a shitty service with advertisements.
As someone who lives rurally, I just want to make sure everyone is aware of how important mail service is. FedEx, UPS, DHL won't deliver to us - not even to our nearest town. If we absolutely need something and they won't ship Canada Post, we have it sent to a friend's house a 1.5 hour drive away.
If it means that CP remains sustainable while paying its workers well, I'm alright with that. (And assuming CP won't begin receiving tax subsidies. I do agree with others' points that it makes sense to be a government funded service.)
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Canada Post wants the federal government to consider changing the legislation that requires it to deliver letter mail daily— a mandate the Crown corporation says no longer reflects modern realities and is causing it to lose money.
The postal charter, which dictates how frequently Canada Post delivers mail, hasn't undergone any significant changes since it was created in 2009, Hamilton said.
The company blames its plight on the continued decline in mail revenue and warns of even larger and unsustainable losses if its operating model doesn't undergo major changes.
But unlike its private competitors, Canada Post is also required to deliver mail to all Canadians, everywhere, five days a week — even if it loses money doing it.
But Canada Post has struggled to compete with new, privately owned parcel companies that hire gig workers who are cheaper and deliver on evenings and weekends.
"We need to bargain language … [so] we're able to negotiate a safe way for workers to deliver the mail [and] get home at a reasonable time, because health and safety must be a priority," Simpson said.
The original article contains 849 words, the summary contains 177 words. Saved 79%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
So the person that complained their competition is beating them because they deliver packages on evenings and weekends is now complaining that mail, which is essentially small parcels that are paid for accordingly, are delivered too often. Contract negotiation time always brings out the most interesting stories...
The Canada Post Union seems really intent on destroying fucking mail service in Canada.. they seem lazy and entitled and they go on strike constantly.... they get everything they want from the government then they still have stuff to complain about.... and yet Canada Post is a pile of crap... I can't remember the last time they actually delivered to my goddamn door instead of sending one of those stupid little paper thingies because they're lazy. Now they don't want to deliver mail at all? What the fuck is the point of having Canada Post if all they do is sit around not delivering mail?
Now they don't want to deliver mail at all?
Tell me you didn't read the article without telling me you didn't read the article.
I've had almost universally positive experiences with Canada Post at the two addresses I've lived. 🥹
I've lived in three provinces and have been writing letters to my mom since I was a child I know all about Canada Post and how shitty they are I've had over 30 years of experience with them. But look at the Canada group down voting me into Oblivion yet again for an opinion. hilarious