It’s tough to see national institutions stumble on their way to the future or lose their place in history.
Canadian railways were once seen as a proud symbol of nationhood, ribbons of steel connecting people from coast-to-coast. Today, Canadian railways are often depicted as tools of 19th century colonial exploitation.
Say what you will about the CBC – pretty well everyone does – but it can only make a tenuous claim to be a champion of all things Canadian while rival broadcasters draw bigger audiences for many national and regional newscasts.
Today, Canada Post is in trouble, or rather, its troubles are surfacing since workers were locked out on Nov. 14.
The post office, to put it bluntly, is having an identity crisis. (As catch phrases go, “Snail Mail” doesn’t rank up there with “Just Do It.”)
Once a near monopoly, Canada Post now delivers one-third as much mail as it did two decades ago, according to the C.D. Howe Institute.
Christmas cards, once wildly popular, now arrive at the front door less frequently than couriered cardboard boxes containing something – or other.
Canada Post, a federal crown corporation which owns the courier company Purolator, is also piling on debt. It lost $748 million in 2023, up from $548 million the previous year.
This financial track record has prompted some critics to write a ‘Rest-in-Peace’ postscript for the venerable service: ‘We loved you, once.’
CrowsNest believes there’s a better way, though.
Canada Post can take three steps to capitalize on its strengths as it moves posthaste to redefine and rebrand itself.
One: It should leverage its virtual monopoly in its traditional business, the delivery of letters, greeting cards, and magazines.
It might actually show a profit in this sector if it delivers mail twice a week to community mailboxes only, rather than five-days a week to both community boxes and individual homes.
Two: Purolator should up its games in the highly competitive business of parcel delivery. This will mean adding weekend deliveries to customers across Canada. If you’re competing with Amazon Prime, act more like Amazon Prime.
Three: Make a virtue of the vital services provided to clients who most need Canada Post, rural and northern communities for whom the “post office” is a lifeline.
Canada Post, and its sole owner the government of Canada, should bluntly concede that needed supplies cannot be delivered profitably to remote communities at affordable prices.
Rather that let losses pile up at the federal Crown corporation, and eventually assume the amassed debt as a matter of necessity, the government of Canada should subsize essential services that Canada Post alone provides.
And trumpet those essential services, in the name of fairness, as an act of nation building.
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