By Joseph A. Gaetan BGS
September 26th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Canada Post is stuck in the past. Instead of closing offices and scaling back, it should be reinventing itself as the “Amazon of Canada.” The bones are there: a national network, trusted delivery, and infrastructure that reaches every community. What’s missing is bold thinking.
This was a long time ago.
Right now, Canada Post is limiting services while Amazon expands. Amazon will deliver to your door almost any time of day. Canada Post clings to rigid routes and schedules that no longer fit how people live and shop. Canadians don’t need daily letter mail anymore, but they do need reliable, modern delivery.
The solution isn’t retreat — it’s reinvention. Imagine a subscription model like Amazon Prime: pay an annual fee for home delivery, weekly mail service, or unlimited parcel drop-offs. Those who don’t subscribe could use lockers at malls or community boxes, giving people choice without ballooning costs.
Canada Post could even go further — partnering with Canadian retailers, offering digital marketplaces, or turning its network into a hub for more than just letters and parcels. The possibilities are there.
Canada Post could even go further — partnering with Canadian retailers, offering digital marketplaces, or turning its network into a hub for more than just letters and parcels.
The real barriers are not technology or geography but mindset. Management fears change, unions resist it, and politicians shy away from tough reforms. Canada Post was once a national asset. It could be again — if it stops acting like a scaredy-cat and starts borrowing the best ideas from the private sector.
Canada doesn’t need a smaller post office. It needs a smarter, bolder one.
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Good piece Joe. Let’s hope that someone (of authority) is listening.
How awfully stupid is the union leadership? They know the corporation is losing a billion and a half dollars this year and 5 billion over the last what 3 years and they head jobs further at risk by going on strike.
It would seem that everybody in Canada with the exception of the union leadership and the Canada Post employees understand that the corporation must be radically reorganized and provide a better business proposition
It should have changed its business model back in the early days of Amazon and even before that with the advent of FedEx and UPS. It purchased Purolator to compete with the big US couriers but management bundle that opportunity.
In my opinion, Canada Post must wake up and realize it has lost the battle in the major urban areas. Amazon, FedEx and UPS are now so dominant there’s no chance of displacing them.
I believe the government through Canada Post should contract out its entire operations to one of those three. A requirement would be to protect service to rural areas. I would expect a considerable government subsidy would be required but hopefully less than it is now.
Agree 100%
This will never happen unless you privatize it.Government is extremely poor at running a competitive,profitable business.
Graham, I agree, the best option would be for the government to get out of the way as they did for Air Canada.