Opinion: Canada Post and the future of mail

Opinion

Things change.

Even a decade ago, a national postal strike would have been big news, especially if it was occurring in the weeks approaching Christmas.

But not so much any more.

Even as the current postal strike continues, there isn’t the huge public outcry for back-to-work legislation and arbitration that marked recent airline labour.

Instead, big first-class mail users like utilities and banks are simply putting pressure on their customers, saying that, in the absence of mail delivery, consumers are still liable for paying their bills — and those bills were easily available online.

Chances are, many customers who haven’t tried online services until being forced to this time around are discovering they don’t really need paper bills, and, quite likely, are never coming back. That means when the postal workers are back at work, another group of mail users will be gone.

Face it: stamps used to be a crucial item in the home office. Not so anymore.

Does Canada Post still have a role to play as a service? Absolutely. But perhaps not as a business. Courier and package delivery companies aren’t in the market for goodwill alone — they exist to make profit, and they won’t operate in areas where there is no profit.

As a letter to the editor from Lorraine Brandson in Churchill earlier this week pointed out, rural customers are already using postal stations rather than getting home delivery, and the idea of using courier services for parcel delivery — if they’re even available — actually costs more than Canada Post.

Brandson’s argument was clear: for a country like Canada with a large urban/rural divide, a national mail service is vital for the nation’s cohesion. She isn’t wrong.

The problem is that the fiscal erosion at Canada Post can only continue. The mail service lost $748 million last year, and $315 million in the last quarter alone. The company has done what many others have: trimming labour costs by moving to casual employees, to the point that casual employees make up 20 per cent of the mail company’s employees. Obviously, Canada Post wants to keep moving in that direction, as its competitors have. It’s a key sticking point in the current strike.

A mediator stepped away from the dispute on Wednesday, saying the sides were too far away from each other to make mediation of any value.

So what’s in the future? Eventually, a smaller Canada Post, one that fills the areas that need the service. Not as a business, because it can’t really be considered like other businesses. Being responsible for picking up all of the areas that no one else will touch because they’re not profitable isn’t the recipe for something that can ever be a successful business.

But as a service? Yes, there’s a need for Canada Post. No one asks why the fire department or the police department don’t turn a profit. No one expects schools or the education system to make money.

But services are still expected to limit their costs as best they can, and that may dramatically change what Canada Post looks like in the future. Things like daily delivery to your door may just not be fiscal feasible any longer.

Change is happening, and will continue to happen.

Ironically, the longer the strike goes on, the quicker that change will occur, as those who use the mail get forced into trying — and often liking — other options.

Put it another way.

Canada Post management and Canada Post unions are actively cutting down the treehouse that they expect to keep on living in.