Good afternoon, committee members and everyone watching online.
Thank you for inviting today me to contribute to this study.
My name is Jan Simpson. I am the national president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.
For nearly two years, postal workers have been at the bargaining table fighting to protect strong public services, defend good jobs and build a sustainable post office for the future. Instead of real bargaining, Canada Post management has relied on frequent government intervention to push through its own agenda.
On September 25, Minister Joël Lightbound announced sweeping changes that will gut the public post office, eliminate thousands of good unionized jobs and cause real hardship in communities across this country.
Postal workers were shocked. The announcement directly interfered with collective bargaining and gave management the green light to rewrite our agreements without negotiation and without the union.
The Kaplan report also ignored the voices of workers, communities, municipalities, charities and small businesses. Kaplan’s recommendations are almost identical to Canada Post’s own plan and echo cuts proposed by the Conservative government in 2013. I would be pleased to discuss this in greater detail during question period, since my time is limited to the opening.
No other country in the world has completely eliminated to-the-door delivery. Canada should not be the first, yet this government seems determined to make that its legacy. This is not our idea of a proud heritage moment.
More than half of Canadians still receive to-the-door delivery. Those with community mailboxes know the downsides: safety concerns, accessibility barriers, litter, graffiti, ice and snow buildup, and even environmental impacts, to name a few.
Seniors and people with disabilities, who account for over 40% of the population, will be the hardest hit. They rely on this service to stay connected and to be independent. Canada Post simply can’t make alternative delivery arrangements for 40% of the population, despite what the minister says. The delivery accommodation program, which the minister repeatedly referenced in his testimony, is not a real solution. It’s a complicated process that sometimes requires personal health information from a physician at a time when millions of Canadians don’t even have a family doctor.
At the same time, Canada Post says it needs to grow its parcel business. However, Canada Post has not provided a plan to show how this will be done by cutting jobs or to-the-door service. In fact, market research has shown Canadians prefer parcels delivered to their doors, so why would we eliminate to-the-door delivery? No other courier is doing that. Cutting delivery to the door will only drive customers away and increase the use of private couriers, who do deliver to the door. Private couriers can be very cost prohibitive.
It didn’t have to be this way. Canada Post’s own financial reports tell a different story than the one we keep hearing. Losses this year are almost entirely due to lower parcel volumes. If volumes had stayed steady, Canada Post would be close to breaking even in 2025.
Canada Post points to the ongoing labour dispute as a major reason for these lower volumes and losses. That means reaching fair collective agreements would do more to stabilize revenues than any cost-cutting plan ever could. It’s important to note that labour costs have remained flat for years. It’s the non-labour operational costs that have increased.
Despite this, Canada Post plans to spend, up front, at least $1.6 billion converting four million homes to community mailboxes. It will cut services and also jobs, jobs that support local businesses, communities and our national economy. In today’s uncertain economy, cutting good union jobs is economic self-sabotage.
Postal workers have always been part of the solution. We’ve proposed revenue-generating ideas for years, more recently at the bargaining table and the industrial inquiry commission. The recent stamp price increase, which CUPW has proposed for years, has already generated $376 million in new revenue in the first two quarters alone. Why are we cutting services that work? Why not give Canada Post a chance to recover and grow sustainably with a real plan to increase parcel volumes and restore public confidence?
The government’s decision to implement the Kaplan report will have lasting negative consequences for workers, communities, charities and businesses, and for the public post office itself, but it is not too late to change the course. We can still have a different path. Let’s honour collective bargaining, commit to a transparent and public mandate review, and let Canadians decide what they want and need from their public post office. Let’s reverse the cuts and invest in the future of our public postal service.
Together, we can build a stronger, more sustainable Canada Post, one that continues to serve every Canadian, in every community, for generations to come.
I would be pleased to answer any questions, share real-life impacts of these changes and expand on any points I have made in my presentation.
Thank you.