In the wake of the government’s bombshell announcement of service cuts at Canada Post, the official story is one of unavoidable financial collapse. We’re told that letter mail has vanished and that our public postal service simply can’t compete in the modern parcel market.
But what if that’s not the whole story? What if the crisis driving these cuts has been deliberately engineered from the inside? A closer look at the relationship between Canada Post and its profitable subsidiary, Purolator, raises deeply troubling questions that every Canadian should be asking.
The Undeniable Conflict of Interest
Let’s start with a fact that hasn’t been part of the national conversation: Canada Post is the majority shareholder of Purolator.
Furthermore, the CEO of Canada Post also sits on the Board of Directors for Purolator. This isn’t just a business curiosity; it’s a glaring, undisclosed conflict of interest. The same leadership team is responsible for the success of two supposedly competing entities. This begs the question: whose interests are truly being served?
Follow the Parcels, Follow the Profits
The timing of Canada Post’s financial freefall is highly suspicious. Over the past 22 months—the exact period of tense contract negotiations with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW)—Purolator has been posting record profits.
How is it possible that a subsidiary is thriving while its parent company, which operates in the same market, is hemorrhaging cash?
The argument from postal workers is simple and compelling: management has been systematically diverting profitable parcel work from Canada Post to Purolator. This strategy starves the public postal service of revenue, creating a manufactured picture of failure. The work and the profits haven’t disappeared; they’ve just been moved to a different balance sheet—one that isn’t beholden to the same public service mandate or union contract.
The Best Network, Sidelined
The idea that Canada Post can’t compete is absurd on its face. Canada Post possesses the most significant, robust, and far-reaching transportation system of any parcel service in the country.
- Unmatched Reach: Mail and parcels are moved six days a week to every corner of Canada.
- Incredible Speed: A parcel picked up in Toronto can be delivered in Ottawa within 24 hours.
- Public Trust: Many Canadians and Canadian businesses actively prefer Canada Post for its reliability and universal service.
With these incredible advantages, how could Canada Post’s parcel market share have plummeted from 62% to 24%, as the government claims? It defies logic—unless the decline wasn’t a natural market event, but a managed outcome.
Why Is No One Asking the Obvious Question?
The most baffling part of this situation is the government’s silence. Instead of challenging the clear mismanagement and conflict of interest at the top of Canada Post, the government has accepted the narrative of failure. They have chosen to punish the public with service cuts and postal workers with contract-breaking mandates.
The evidence suggests this isn’t a story about an obsolete postal service. It’s a story about a manufactured crisis, designed to weaken a public institution, break its union, and justify a privatization-by-stealth agenda.
Before we accept the end of door-to-door delivery and the degradation of our postal service, we must demand answers. The government’s first action shouldn’t be to cut; it should be to investigate the leadership that steered our public post office into this ditch while its private subsidiary sped away with the profits.
Share this post if you believe Canadians deserve an investigation, not service cuts.
Sources
Canada Post Annual Reports Archive (for 2016 Report): https://www.canadapost.ca/cpc/doc/en/aboutus/financialreports/2016_ar_complete_en.pdf
Canada Post Annual Report (for 2023 Report): https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/our-company/financial-and-sustainability-reports/2023-annual-report.page
Parliamentary Report: “The Way Forward for Canada Post” (2016): https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/OGGO/report-7
Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) Campaigns: https://www.cupw.ca/en/campaigns
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Article on “Manufactured Crisis”: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/commentary/why-%E2%80%98crisis%E2%80%99-canada-post-manufactured
CBC News Article on Canada Post’s Business Model (2016): https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-post-review-lockout-1.3667504
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