Canada Post could lose big thanks to technology
Posted April 23, 2013 6:38 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – A report looking into the business model of Canada Post could change the way mail is delivered to your home.
The Conference Board of Canada suggests the Crown corporation will lose about $1-billion a year by the end of this decade.
According to Vice-President of Public Policy David Stewart-Patterson the reason behind the possible change is technology.
“That’s displacing a whole lot of mail. Half of Canadian households say they are now sending two pieces of mail or less every month. A lot of Canadians are now paying their bills online, a lot of companies are now sending their statements electronically.”
So the study suggested looking at limiting delivery days, delivering to community mail boxes instead of to your door step.
“The postal system today is handling almost a billion letter less a year than it was as recently as 2006. It is likely to lose another two billion or more by 2020. That means a big hole on the bottom line.”
These options are not sitting well with Ken Mooney of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.
“We’ve talked about this before in BC and it caused quite the uproar in some communities.”
He thinks the report raises several questions about the facts being presented.
“How good and how valid is the projection. Is the projection actuate? We know that the projections were based on incorrect data.”
Canada Post says in a statement: “It is clear that Canadians will continue to want and need a national postal service, but one built for the services they require today and in the future. This will require fundamental changes on the part of the Corporation in order to avoid becoming a burden on taxpayers.”
