Commentary
By Simon Enoch

Calls to privatize Canada Post resurface with every labour dispute—but for rural and remote communities, that would mean higher costs, reduced service and a deep erosion of a vital national lifeline.

As strike action looms, some will again argue that privatization is the solution. The current contract dispute between Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers has reignited calls for change, with some critics claiming a for-profit model would be more efficient. But this moment demands deeper reflection: not just about cost, but about what kind of country we want to live in.

Proponents of privatization often cite the supposed success of reforms in other countries, but they rarely mention the costs, especially for Canadians outside urban centres. We don’t need to guess what a privatized system would look like. Private delivery services like UPS and FedEx already place a “Remote Rural Surcharge” on their delivery prices to rural and remote postal codes.

If you happen to live in Sept-Îles, Que., your surcharge is $15.75 with FedEx. If you live in northern Manitoba, it can be as high as $130. Even with these added fees, private delivery firms often rely on Canada Post for “last-mile” deliveries in sparsely populated areas.

Canada Post operates under a universal service obligation, meaning it must deliver mail to every address in the country, no matter how remote, at a uniform rate. Private companies are under no such obligation and are free to avoid unprofitable regions or charge extra.

In contrast, the U.K.’s Royal Mail, which had a similar mandate before it was privatized, has repeatedly failed to meet its service commitments, paying over £16 million ($29.7 million Cdn) in fines to the postal regulator. It is now lobbying to reduce delivery to just three days per week.

Such cutbacks would hit isolated communities especially hard. For many, regular mail service is more than convenience—it’s a connection to medications, government cheques, vital information and local commerce. In many rural areas, seniors and small businesses rely on Canada Post to function.

Suggesting that Canada Post should be run like a business while also delivering to unprofitable regions is asking the impossible. Unlike private carriers, which can cherry-pick profitable markets, Canada Post must serve everyone—and that’s exactly what makes it a public service.

When service erodes, so too does trust in the institutions that bind us together. Rather than forcing Canada Post into a business model that doesn’t fit, we should reimagine its role for the 21st century: as a platform for economic development, government service delivery and national connection.

The post office was one of the first federal departments created after Confederation in 1867. It helped build Canada then—and, if we choose, it can help build the country we need now.

Let’s stop treating Canada Post as a business and start treating it as the essential public service it was always meant to be.

Simon Enoch is a senior researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives based in Saskatchewan.