this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2025
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Mail services are, in my opinion, a worthwhile endeavour. People in remote parts of the country deserve to be able to get their bills on paper too.
It’s when they’re considered to be a standalone, for-profit corporation that problems really crop up. Especially when they’re competing with and for Amazon’s race to the bottom delivery rates.
I say this as someone who resolutely avoids electronic billing. It’s a FANTASTIC way for my ADHD brain to forget about bills until the power is cut off.
ETA Germany sold off Deutsche Post but that’s a terrible example because Germany doesn’t have 90% of its population on 10% of the land mass and still need to serve that 10% population.
I don't think Canada post needs to be profitable, I agree that it's a service and should be run like one rather than a business.
But just because it's a government run service doesn't mean we need to toss money away either. If problems have been identified and they can be more efficient, why not?
I don't see why mail needs to be delivered every single day, especially if it's only junkmail that day.
I don't see why door to door delivery is necessary either now a days. I lived in an area where I had to drive 20 minutes to pick up my mail, I survived. Maybe there's a scenario I'm missing that my life experience hasn't exposed me to yet, but if there are cases like that, maybe disabled people, let them apply for door to door delivery on a special case by case basis.
I agree with all those points. Door to door mail delivery was a postwar job creation program in USA as far as I know, maybe it’s the same for Canada, but it is a luxury unless it’s super high density.
I have a recycling bin next to my mailbox. Almost everything goes in there. I can check it once a week.
It might make sense to continue it as a service but attach a substantial surcharge to cover the pay of the mail carriers, just like you would normally pay extra for other luxuries. We might even set the price to subsidize the service for mobility-impaired people for whom going to a community mailbox is a genuine obstacle.
It is a luxury, but I don't think we're wrong to want luxuries. I think the frequency issue is intentionally disregarded. And it shouldn't be. I'd rather have weekly delivery to my door than daily to a community mailbox. But what I'd really like is choice. What if we had both a community mailbox and weekly door-to-door delivery? Need something urgently, pick it up at the community mailbox where it gets dropped off daily, but if you're not religiously emptying your community mailbox, a postman still comes by once a week to deliver any mail from your community mailbox to your home?
I suspect this could potentially save a lot of money AND provide actually better service to the significant majority of people. To the point that we could even start expanding door-to-door delivery again instead of removing it, we'd just expand it to areas that currently only have community mailboxes but do it on a reduced frequency, like garbage and recycling services. If they can do it weekly in most places, why can't the postal service?
Most people don't even get door to door delivery it is a luxury for a small percentage of people. Why does a small percentage get special treatment? Because they have always had it? That's not a valid reason.
Not to mention the people who have it are generally wealthier because it's mostly for detached homes at this point.
Did you miss the part where I suggested expanding it? You know, being progressive instead of regressive? Instead of taking away the luxury, let's find a way to give more people the luxury? So that it's not special treatment, it's everyone's treatment?
The postal workers would absolutely reject a plan for weekly door to door delivery because it would mean laying off tons of postal workers.
And how do you even make that work financially? Door to door delivery is insanely expensive, especially in rural areas. That means driving many km from farm to farm to deliver all the mail instead of just taking it to the town post office.
How is it possible to both lay off a ton of postal workers but be even less financially viable? It’s the per-letter costs. Door to door raises the per-letter costs and weekly delivery reduces the volume (because businesses who need daily delivery go elsewhere) and so you lay off a ton of postal workers but your volume falls off a cliff and you still lose money.
People who live in the country are already vehicle dependent anyway (no one’s living in the country ordering Uber Eats every day and paying a fortune on long distance delivery fees). It doesn’t hurt them to drive to the post office once a week (or even once a month) to get their mail.
I really liked the idea I saw in some interview where Mail Services could be switched up to being 'Federal Services' or Community Services...
We have all these buildings,
Why can't they be Passport Services, Taxes Services,.... I even liked the idea that Mail Carriers could be wellness checkers.
Need something notarized? Need to do a proof of identity? Photo taken, Etc. Pay them well, Train them well, Make them more than just dropping of a letter. Expand them to be more than that.
Keep the hard earned infrastructure, and adapt it.
I don't really agree that you have the right to paper bills. It's a waste all around and should be subject to additional fees. We live in a digital age, time to adapt.
I do think that remote areas deserve to receive mail for other purposes, but bills aren't one of those.
I understand why you say it’s an environmental waste, and that has some merit, until we consider the impact of junk mail, flyers, etc. There are many areas of modern society we can economize and improve upon before we get to the impact from paper billing.
What is your alternative to a pile of paper on a desk? It needs to be persistent, timely, and reliable. Online billing portals mean I need to log in on a regular basis to multiple portals in order to check for notifications and invoices, which simply doesn’t work for my brain. Having a bill sitting out, on which I am able to write the payment amount and date, permits me to keep track of the bill throughout its lifecycle at a glance from across the room.
Junk mail is one of the only things keeping Canada Post afloat. Get rid of it and you cut off a huge source of their revenue. And without it you’d have postal workers driving around with empty trucks delivering nothing at all most days.
I personally can go weeks between receiving actual envelopes addressed to me. Everything else is junk mail. Why should postal workers be paid $70k/year for this?
An email inbox? What online billing doesnt have the option for an email notification?
Can your bills not just be direct debit?
They may want to actually review the bills for errors before they pay them.
You can still review it prior to it going through.
Same problem as paying the bill online in the first place: you have to remember to take an unprompted action at a certain time.
Set a reminder? My phone is full of daily, weekly, monthly, and annual reminders. I use my calendar as well for all kinds of events. I have repeated reminders and repeating alarms too. If you’re an older person (or just don’t like/trust technology, and I respect that) then you can use a paper calendar, daily planner, or a notebook.
But the argument that you need taxpayers to pay $70,000 a year salaries for postal workers to deliver bills to your front door because you would otherwise forget to pay your bills is an incredibly weak one.
All my paperless bills come to one of my email addresses, I look at it and then delete it. I have yet to see an error. I make sure that the money comes out of my account when it is supposed to.
You heard it here first folks. The people who don't have internet, don't need to pay for bills.