The government is finally willing to admit that Canada Post is at the precipice. The Crown corporation is losing over $1 billion a year and the situation is simply unsustainable.
Unfortunately, those in government don’t seem to have the willingness to embrace a truly bold solution that will solve the financial crisis facing Canada Post: Privatization.
For a decade, the Justin Trudeau Liberals refused to admit that there was even a problem at Canada Post, despite massive annual shortfalls and the repeated need for government bailouts. At least on that front, the Carney government appears to be different.
As Government Transformation, Public Works and Procurement Minister Joel Lightbound noted last month, “Canada Post is now facing an existential crisis. Since 2018, the corporation has accumulated more than $5 billion in losses. In 2024 alone, it lost over $1 billion, and in 2025, it is already on track to lose close to $1.5 billion.”
Five billion dollars’ worth of losses over the span of seven years is simply unsustainable. And, as Lightbound pointed out, the situation is getting worse, not better.
“Canada Post is effectively insolvent,” he declared, adding that “transformation is required to ensure the survival of Canada Post and protect the services Canadians rely on.”
So far, so good.
Lightbound’s proposed solutions are ones that governments have considered for years but have refused to act upon. The bottom line is that Canada Post’s problems are so severe that even the government’s proposed solutions won’t make the organization solvent or remove the need for further injections of taxpayer cash.
The government’s proposed solutions might cut Canada Post’s losses in half if fully implemented. But they won’t eliminate the deficit entirely.
Those solutions include shifting all Canadians to communal mailboxes, which could save up to $400 million a year; sending more mail via ground shipping, which could save $20 million; closing some formerly rural post offices that have become suburban; and looking at raising prices.
Even the biggest item on that list – shifting toward communal mailboxes for all Canadians – would save just $400 million a year. That’s hardly enough to address a $1.5-billion shortfall.
Plus, there’s the ongoing labour dispute at Canada Post. The postal workers’ union announced a strike as soon as these modest reforms were proposed by the federal government. And there’s been labour unrest at Canada Post for nearly a year, with the union demanding massive raises the corporation can ill afford.
The bottom line is this: Canada Post’s current infrastructure and staff were, according to a recent report, built to deliver 5.5 billion letters a year, but today the Crown corporation is delivering less than half of that. There’s no way that small changes can address a problem as fundamental as that.
The only solution, then, is privatization. Privatization has been a proven method in countries across Europe of turning failing postal services into well-run organizations that run profits and deliver exceptional customer service.
Countries like Austria, Belgium, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands all privatized their government-run postal services years ago — with great success.
Deutsche Post in Germany, in particular, posts healthy profits and has been rated as one of the best postal services in the world. Studies have shown it continues to perform head and shoulders above Canada Post, despite being run as a private entity.
There will always be those who reflexively oppose moving toward privatization. But if you look at countries across Europe, private postal services have been a huge success.
There’s no way Canada Post can continue to operate in its current form. And the federal government’s proposed solutions won’t fully address the problems the Crown corporation faces. Anything short of full privatization will simply mean kicking the can down the road instead of transforming Canada Post into a more efficient, effective and consumer-oriented organization.
Originally published here