'Reality has changed': Federal government announces end to door-to-door delivery for Canada Post

OTTAWA — The federal Liberal government announced Thursday it would be ending door-to-door mail delivery from Canada Post and lifting the moratorium on rural post office closures.

Procurement Minister Joël Lightbound announced the sweeping changes in an effort to set the Crown corporation, which has accumulated billions in consecutive losses, on a path toward sustainability.

“Canada Post is effectively insolvent, and it is facing an existential crisis.”

The recommendations to lift the moratorium on the conversion to community mailboxes, relax the postal service’s delivery standards and remove the inability to close rural post offices were made in a report by William Kaplan, who was tapped to provide the government with a report on the ongoing labour dispute between Canada Post’s management and its union, as well as examine the corporation’s financial situation.

In announcing he had accepted the report’s recommendations, Lightbound highlighted some of the most damming figures that illustrate Canada Post’s challenges, which began with the sharp decline in letter mail.

Currently, the number of letters Canadians send and Canada Post delivers annually has dropped to around two billion, down from the 5.5 billion two decades earlier, with average households receiving roughly two letters per week.

In terms of parcels, the percentage Canada Post delivered had shrunk to around 24 per cent, dramatically down from the 62 per cent of parcel delivery it enjoyed back in 2019.

Lightbound explained that the drop in service demands means that Canada Post is losing about $10 million each day and facing a future where billions in government bailouts are the only option to keep it afloat. In the second quarter of 2025, it lost $407 million.

To stem the bleeding, Lightbound said the government was asking Canada Post to implement a series of changes to try to save money.

For example, the government estimates that by relaxing the service delivery standards to three to seven days, instead of the current two to four days, the Crown corporation would be able to transport non-urgent mail by ground, instead of air, which Lightbound said would save it more than $20 million annually.

Lifting the moratorium on the conversion to community mailboxes would also equal savings, with the minister saying it costs less than providing delivery to an individual address.

He said around 77 per cent of Canadians were already receiving mail through a community mailbox, including those in rural areas and apartments.

Transitioning the country’s remaining four million individual addresses to a community mailbox system would happen over the next nine years, with the bulk of the work happening in the next three to four years, the minister said. He added that options would be available for seniors and those facing mobility issues.

Doing so would end up saving the corporation nearly $400 million per year.

Former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper tried to bring an end to door-to-door delivery back in 2013, which garnered widespread backlash, and the Liberals scrapped it once they won power in 2015.

Lightbound referenced that fight, along with memories of the battle put up by former Montreal mayor Denis Coderre, who opposed community mailboxes to the point of taking a jackhammer to the spot where one was set to be installed, to say the country has been through debates on the issue.

“The reality has changed over the last 10 years,” the minister said.

Not only is Canada Post no longer financially viable, he says, but Canadians are simply not using it as much.

“I think there’s an understanding amongst Canadians that something needs to happen if we want to preserve that institution,” he said.

“What we’re doing today is the start of this transformation, and the goal, ultimately, is to save Canada Post.”

Lightbound said the only other option would be for the government to continually bail out the Crown corporation to the tune of billions of dollars.

However, he did not rule out the government doing so again, saying that, given the state of its finances, it was sending a clear message to Canada Post to get its finances back on track.

The Crown corporation welcomed the changes, saying it would allow for the necessary work to “restore” postal service.

“We take this responsibility seriously and will work closely with the government and our employees to move with urgency and implement the necessary changes in a thoughtful manner,” CEO and President Doug Ettinger said in a statement.

Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, called the changes “long overdue.” 

Lifting the ban on closing rural post offices, which has been in place since 1994, could also free up land in areas to build more housing, Lightbound said.

He suggested that the moratorium was no longer serving its purpose, given that many of the areas that were rural back in 1994 have grown into suburban communities.

The measure has prevented the Crown corporation from adjusting its operations based on demographics, which would also help stabilize its finances, Lightbound said.

He said Canada Post has been asked to return with a plan within 45 days on how it would implement the changes, to ensure rural, remote and Indigenous communities remain served.

In addition to the changes announced Thursday, the minister said he has also asked Canada Post to take even further steps to address its finances, which include reducing costs in its management structure.

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