this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2025
108 points (96.6% liked)

Canada

10495 readers
592 users here now

What's going on Canada?



Related Communities


🍁 Meta


🗺️ Provinces / Territories


🏙️ Cities / Local Communities

Sorted alphabetically by city name.


🏒 SportsHockey

Football (NFL): incomplete

Football (CFL): incomplete

Baseball

Basketball

Soccer


💻 Schools / Universities

Sorted by province, then by total full-time enrolment.


💵 Finance, Shopping, Sales


🗣️ Politics


🍁 Social / Culture


Rules

  1. Keep the original title when submitting an article. You can put your own commentary in the body of the post or in the comment section.

Reminder that the rules for lemmy.ca also apply here. See the sidebar on the homepage: lemmy.ca


founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Now is the time to draw inspiration from wherever we can, and stand with workers while they fight the employer-led race to the bottom.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] GodofLies@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 day ago

We're all being misled here raging over CP's reform and its losses because 'all I get is trash mail'. Why isn't the management of Canada Post on the hook for this? Yet we're here blaming the union of their mismanagement? After all, they're the ones that are making the big bucks, so they know what they're doing right? Right? Why aren't any of these c-suite or board stepping down/let go from doing such a terrible job? 6 straight years, 24 financial quarters. Who let this 'experiment' run for so long? Did this never make a blip in some federal minister's portfolio? Well at least we know who to blame for inaction during this time for this policy failure.

  • As many other have pointed out, it's a service, not a for-profit.
  • The corpro Amazon contractor-undercutting wages problem
  • The Libs aren't willing to do the hard work to actually transform CP into a cost-recovery model and fix the point above. They'd rather just do the classic 'cut services' while only looking at a spreadsheet without really carefully considering what they are really doing. It's a cut to peoples jobs which means less money flowing into the economy as a whole - especially given CP's reach. Plus, wages paid out, the federal government still taxes it. You see what I'm seeing? The ditch isn't as big as people make it to be. Again, the Libs are pissing away a crown corp jewel again.
  • CP has so much more potential with what it can do with its storage, delivery, network and database without even doing major expenditures.
[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

The Leap Manifesto had some very good ideas about using Canada Post as a vehicle for a green transition: https://rabble.ca/economy/postal-workers-launch-ambitious-proposal-could-redefine-canadas-economy/

I think most of the problems with Canada Post is the commercialisation of it. 95% of my personal mail delivered to my community mailbox is flyers and scam inivitations to MLM's. I've stopped regularly checking it every day because its always all garbage that I imeadiatly throw out. I usually check it every other week now. Plus if I get a parcel its almost always just a slip that I have to take to shoppers drug mart (not the more easily accessible post office). Its literally more convenient to get packages delivered by anyone else, because they will actually bring them to my door instead of waiting an hour in line at Shoppers so that an underpaid Shoppers drug mart employee can get me my package that any other service would have put directly into my hands.

[–] TotallyHuman@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 days ago

I just want to take a moment to enjoy that the Canada Post thing is one of our country's big political conversations. There's a problem, and people have different solutions. Some of the solutions rely on false information or bad reasoning. Some of them are well-reasoned, but have different priorities to each other. The government will have to make a decision, and some will praise it, and some will criticize it, and it will make some peoples' lives better, and some peoples' lives worse.

But nobody's using the Canada Post situation as a vehicle to hurt people they hate. People don't seem to be moving in lockstep based on ideology and propaganda. Nobody's been called a fascist over it because nobody's been being a fascist over it. This is what politics should be like. It's refreshing.

[–] justOnePersistentKbinPlease@fedia.io 58 points 3 days ago (2 children)

How to make Canada post profitable again:

  1. Force Amazon to follow the fucking law and pay all of their contractors-but- not-really as either actual contractors(they'll make far more money), or as employees(they'll make far more money)
  2. undo everything Stephen Harper and his cronies did.
[–] Canconda@lemmy.ca 43 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (4 children)

Why is nobody clueing in that if Canada Post goes under we're all gonna be stuck getting our legal documents and important mail via severely underpaid and over worked amazon delivery drivers!?

You get what you pay for. The short sightedness of all this is astounding.

[–] Eranziel@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago (13 children)

The expectation that a vital public service must be a profitable company is just an ass-backward assumption from the start. What's next, are we going to expect hospitals to become profit centres?

[–] nik282000@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

are we going to expect hospitals to become profit centres

Welcome to Ontario! Hospitals ARE profit centers, if they don't make enough money the board of directors have to make "changes." With the cost of treatments being set by OHIP that means the only changes available are cuts in service or staff.

Canada Post and healthcare should be treated like a military. It is overhead, the cost of being a modern country, you can try to get the most bang for your buck but the goal is to provide the absolute best service not to turn a profit.

The debate is not about shutting down Canada Post completely, it’s about scaling back service due to rapidly falling demand. You can still have a vital postal service with weekly delivery to community mailboxes. I have received my mail at a community mailbox for over 30 years. These days I check the mail maybe twice a month. It’s a 3 minute walk each way. People with limited mobility who live in a community mailbox area can already sign up for special home delivery.

[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world -1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

You can have a vital postal service without paying postal workers $70,000/year to deliver junk mail door to door 5 days a week. Weekly delivery to community mailboxes plus supplemental home delivery for people with limited mobility would save a ton of money but it would mean laying off thousands of postal workers.

This whole dispute isn’t about a vital service, it’s about a jobs program that is unjustifiable in the modern day.

load more comments (11 replies)
[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca -3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You send important legal mail by CP? No one does that.

Sorry, but these clowns are milkmen and ice deliverers in a modern world. All I get is trash and mail delivered to the wrong address.

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 15 points 3 days ago

Who only deliver to and around places that are profitable.

[–] Reannlegge@lemmy.ca 13 points 2 days ago (2 children)

We should all stop using Amazon, first and foremost, then we should move to Canadian alternatives.

I don’t use Amazon. But plenty of other businesses use Uber Eats and other gig worker couriers.

There’s no getting the genie back in the bottle on couriers. No one is paying $70,000/year (what their salary would be if they win the labour dispute) postal workers for delivering parcels.

[–] nik282000@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago

Not really an option. Thanks to the insane cost of living and the federal government allowing Amazon to undercut Canadian business a lot of people can literally not afford to buy from anywhere else.

This shit needs to be addressed at the federal level.

[–] CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 33 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (13 children)

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.

[–] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 23 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 3 days ago (6 children)

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.

[–] nyan@lemmy.cafe 2 points 2 days ago

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.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] ShadowRam@fedia.io 6 points 3 days ago

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.

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.

load more comments (11 replies)
[–] puppinstuff@lemmy.ca 22 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Sell public-option banking and cell phone services at post office branches and you’d turn instant profit. Bigger branches could also carry dry grocery goods. There is so much more they could be doing other than trying to out-Bezos the mail.

No you wouldn’t. Those are competitive industries, despite all the griping about Canadian banks and Rogers et al. Unless you’re going to turn Canada Post into a bank (and discontinue delivering mail) they’re not going to be viable just because you add banking service.

65% of Canada Post’s costs are the salaries of postal workers. Letter volume has dropped from 5.5 billion to less than 2 billion over the past 2 decades. Since the strike began, plans are in motion for many businesses that send a lot of mail to switch to electronic. Plenty of businesses that send out millions of letters per year are using the strike as a kick in the butt to switch to electronic. When the strike ends the volume won’t even come close to getting back to 2 billion.

[–] any1th3r3@lemmy.ca 10 points 3 days ago

Yes and yes.
I've been mentioning France's efforts to modernise their postal services, that also includes services aimed at helping older folks with daily/weekly interactions / home visits, and I think that would be a great thing to add to Canada Post rural offerings.

[–] karlhungus@lemmy.ca 5 points 3 days ago

Public option cell and Internet I'd be very down with, especially if they reclaimed the lines they paid bell and Rogers to lay

[–] miss_demeanour@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 3 days ago (5 children)

Any solutions as to how NOT to lose $1,000,000 per day?
Didn't think so. Let's keep delvering junk mail door-to-door!

[–] grte@lemmy.ca 10 points 3 days ago (2 children)

How much money is the military losing per day? As far as I can tell they aren't bringing in any income at all!

[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Without the military what’s stopping Trump from invading?

[–] grte@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I don't think government services need to turn a profit to exist. Including the military.

[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The military isn’t a public service. It’s the fundamental exercise of the government’s sovereignty over the country.

Canada Post doesn’t need to turn a profit either. But it shouldn’t be losing billions of dollars to deliver junk mail door to door 5 days a week when it could deliver weekly to community mailboxes (supplemented by home delivery for those in need) and provide the same vital service at a fraction of the cost.

[–] grte@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Defence is absolutely a service the government is providing the country. Define it however you will, that is the nature of the thing.

As for the rest, everyone keeps banging on about junk mail but I seem to get other things in the mail regularly as well.

Call defence a service if you want. The point is that it doesn’t vary with supply and demand. The government decides how much it wants to spend on defence and that’s the budget.

Mail is different. If everyone sent 10x as much mail as we do now there wouldn’t be a problem. But that’s not the world we live in. Mail is in steep decline from 5.5 billion letters 2 decades ago to 2 billion today and dropping. Most of that mail is sent by businesses who are increasingly looking for ways to further cut it back.

The company I work for spends millions of dollars a year sending out mail, much of it to customers who have opted out of receiving mail but get it anyway because of legacy databases and slow-moving business decisions. The postal strike has a lot of managers now prioritizing the rectification of that issue. We’re going to see a huge drop in outgoing mail volumes and that will directly hit Canada Post’s bottom line.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Reannlegge@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 days ago

The junk mail is one of the profits for Canada post, I personally put a sticky in my mailbox saying no junk mail. I have done a lot to avoid ads, it has not been inexpensive I have paid a lot of money to set up a system where I get very few peaces of junk mail, spam, or auto phone calls. Even though if you asked me I would have to tell you I have paid somewhere in the high hundreds (maybe $1000+) over the past ten or so years and I continue to pay lots of money (less now that I have started the buy Canadian thing) to keep me away from all the junk mail and spam the results have been priceless, Canada Post could help people with this.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 6 points 3 days ago

In an unhelpful, though unfortunately lawful, end-run around the union, the Liberals had granted Canada Post’s request to put a “final offer” directly to members in May. To no one’s surprise, nearly 70 per cent of voting postal workers rejected the proposed contracts. With the government again putting its thumb on the scale for Canada Post management in last Thursday’s announcement, the union had little choice but to escalate to full job action now.
For nearly two years, Canada Post management has been pushing a narrative that the crown corporation is broke and the only solution is to impose the costs of restructuring on workers.

load more comments
view more: next ›