Ryan Tumilty

Students from multiple schools told stories about being harassed as they walked past protest encampments on campuses

Students from multiple schools told stories about being harassed as they walked past protest encampments on campuses

'I'm not sure the best use of this committee's precious time is to indulge in political speculation,' the finance minister said

Israel denounced the vote as rewarding Hamas for the October 7 attacks Article content

Advertisement 1 Share this Story : 'Critical juncture': Canada Post is bleeding money and will need a big change by next year 'Critical juncture': Canada Post is bleeding money and will need a big change by next year Recently released financial reports show the Crown Corporation lost $748 million before taxes in the last year Author of the article: Article content OTTAWA – Canada Post is at a tipping point. With letters declining, package delivery going to competitors and the Crown corporation having lost $3 billion in the last six years, something will soon have to change about how Canadians get their mail. Advertisement 2 Article content 'Critical juncture': Canada Post is bleeding money and will need a big change by next year Back to video The Crown Corporation released its financial reports earlier this month, showing that it lost $748 million before taxes in the last year. In 2006, Canada Post delivered seven letters per week to the average address; it now delivers two. That has reduced overall volumes from 5.5 billion letters in 2006 to 2.2 billion last year. Article content Today, there are no taxpayer dollars going into Canada Post, the corporation's exclusive monopoly on letter mail has previously allowed it to cover costs and even bank surpluses in previous years, but those surpluses have been eroded and, come early next year, the corporation expects its reserves will fall below requirements. Canada Post's president and CEO, Doug Ettinger, said in his annual report that something has to change. Advertisement 3 Article content “Canada Post is now at a critical juncture — modernize and revitalize to serve a rapidly changing country or fall behind and struggle to keep it all going,” he said. While letter mail has declined, online shopping has exploded and, initially, Canada Post was successful in pivoting to that market. In 2019, Canada Post handled 62 per cent of parcels delivered in this country, but now that's down to just 23 per cent as new companies enter the market. Postmedia, which owns National Post, is also in the parcel delivery business. Jon Hamilton, the corporation's vice-president of strategic communication, said new competitors have entered the market that have more flexibility to deliver on evenings and weekends, with lower costs. Advertisement 4 Article content “Because Canadians have moved to online shopping and there's been tremendous growth, that's obviously attracted a lot of new competitors. And our market share has quickly declined in just the last few years,” he said. Hamilton said Canada Post is working with the government and with its unions on a path forward. He said they're open to considering any kind of changes that could stabilize their finances. “We need to look at everything and look at what other countries are doing with their postal systems and understand what's important. What do we need to maintain and what needs to change?” Canada Post has mandates it is currently obliged to follow. In addition to providing delivery to Canadians five days a week, it is mandated to deliver letters within set time frames and has to have postal outlets within 15 kilometres of 99 per cent of Canadians. Advertisement 5 Article content Canadian Union of Postal Workers President Jan Simpson said the financial problems at Canada Post are a real concern, but she believes the corporation should be considering becoming bigger rather than smaller, moving into postal banking as some other countries' postal agencies have done, or providing check ins on seniors. She said Canada's big banks don't serve many rural or remote communities and Canada Post could fill that void. “We saw that during COVID, many banks have left these communities and for those that are still within communities, the fees are very high. So there's many people who are underbanked throughout this country,” she said. CUPW is in negotiations with Canada Post now over contracts that expired late last year and early in 2024. Simpson was also critical of $15 million in bonuses that the corporation awarded to executives. Advertisement 6 Article content “You're saying that you're having financial hardship, but you're awarding yourself bonuses. I mean, that's just shocking to me.” Canada Post's financial report doesn't specifically identify what changes they are considering, but it could mean changes to how mail is delivered, moving to less frequent deliveries or slower delivery times for letter mail. The corporation could also close post offices and make other changes to save money. They could also make changes to how parcels are delivered, moving to weekend or evening deliveries as many private firms offer. Simpson said moving away from regular door to door delivery would be a mistake. “When under the Harper government, we went to community mailboxes, we took away our competitive advantage; Canada Post is going to every door, every day.” Advertisement 7 Article content During the 2015 election, the Liberals promised to end a Canada Post program, which was then underway, converting addresses from door-to-door home delivery to community mailboxes. When they came to power, the Liberals stopped that program, but didn't restore door-to-door service to places that already lost it. Canada Post's financial report shows, 24 per cent of Canadians currently get their mail delivered to their front door, while 34 per cent receive their mail through a community mailbox and 28 per cent receive it through centralized points like an apartment building lobby. Door-to-door delivery is by far the most expensive, costing $284 per address per year on average. Community mailboxes cost $162 and apartment lobby delivery cost $130. Advertisement 8 Article content Public Services and Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos was asked about the looming financial problem for Canada Post after the financial statements were released. He said the government will wait to see what Canada Post comes up with as potential solutions. “We first need to see what options they're going to present, what options they're going to recommend, what options they are going to develop with their workers,” he said. “There is an opportunity to increase revenues, given the significant increase in the need for package delivery across Canada. There is also an opportunity to decrease cost by working with unions and workers.” Advertisement 9 Article content Ian Lee, a professor at the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University, said Canada Post should have seen these changes coming sooner. “You could see this train wreck coming from a decade and a half or more,” he said. “These are economic trends occurring, just like the trend that killed video stores and bankrupted Blockbuster Video.” He said the trends are all moving in the wrong direction for Canada Post; letter mail will continue to drop and there will continue to be tough competition for parcels. “We're not going to go back to writing letters. We're not going back to the analog age. This is the future.” Lee has written extensively about Canada Post and made recommendations in the past for a complete overhaul. He said he would reduce the frequency of mail delivery and move all addresses to community mailboxes to save costs. Advertisement 10 Article content He said the government has to move on this quickly, because it has to prepare for a much smaller Canada Post with many fewer employees. “A future Canada Post is going to be 10,000 to 15,000, maybe 20,000 employees. It's not going to be 65,000 because there isn't enough business,” he said. National Post [email protected] Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what's really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here Article content Share this article in your social network Share this Story : 'Critical juncture': Canada Post is bleeding money and will need a big change by next year Comments Join the Conversation Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information. Latest National Stories News Near Elliot Lake This Week in Flyers

Recently released financial reports show the Crown Corporation lost $748 million before taxes in the last year

The president of the border agency said they are trying to bring more IT work in-house

The president of the border agency said they are trying to bring more IT work in-house Article content

John Ossowski told the public accounts committee Thursday that the pandemic presented a set of border challenges unlike anything they had ever faced

Advertisement 1 Share this Story : Faulty, expensive ArriveCan app 'was still the right answer,' former CBSA head tells MPs Faulty, expensive ArriveCan app 'was still the right answer,' former CBSA head tells MPs John Ossowski told the public accounts committee Thursday that the pandemic presented a set of border challenges unlike anything they had ever faced Author of the article: Article content OTTAWA – The former head of the CBSA said the scandal plagued ArriveCan app was the only way to deal with the border issues the pandemic presented and he is proud of how his agency responded. Advertisement 2 Article content Faulty, expensive ArriveCan app 'was still the right answer,' former CBSA head tells MPs Back to video John Ossowski, led the border agency from 2016 to 2022, before leaving and joining PriceWaterhouseCoopers, an international consulting firm. He told MPs on the House of Commons public accounts committee Thursday that the pandemic presented a set of challenges unlike anything they had ever faced. Article content “We were shutting down the largest unprotected border in the world. It took a lot of effort to coordinate with our U.S. colleagues to make sure that there would be continued flow of food and medicine and supplies in and out of the country,” he said. “There was remarkable flexibility on behalf of the workforce and all of my colleagues and other departments to do the best we could. There was no playbook.” The ArriveCan app was developed by the border agency during the pandemic. It initially required travellers to provide their contact information and information on where they would be quarantining to border officers, which was then passed along to provincial health officials who could follow up. Advertisement 3 Article content Later it was made mandatory and travellers had to use it to provide vaccination information. The app malfunctioned at one point sending thousands of travellers into quarantine. Costs for the app also spiralled and it ended up costing at least $60 million An Auditor General's report on the app found the exact price was hard to pin down, because of the poor record keeping and missing documents on how the app was contracted. The RCMP is investigating and has executed search warrants on the homes Ossowski said spending on the app should have been better documented and better controlled, but he still believes it was necessary, noting it replaces a cumbersome paper process. He said it still provides value to the government as travellers can use it to speed up customs forms. Advertisement 4 Article content “The app was still the right answer to the challenge that we had. It facilitated our ability to manage the border, and it will continue to facilitate, in its new form, legitimate travel and trade across the country,” he said. While no longer mandatory, travellers can still use ArriveCan to submit customs declarations and use express lanes when they arrive at the airport. Conservative MP Kelly Block said after everything that has happened with the app she was stunned to see Ossowski celebrating it. “It is absolutely mind boggling to have the former president of the CBSA state he remains proud of the work his department undertook,” she said. Advertisement 5 Article content Conservative MPs also asked about contracts Ossowski signed to temporarily return to CBSA and prepare for his testimony. Ossowski was signed on a casual employee, he said he was told this was necessary for him to be able to review his emails and calendars to be able to respond to the committee's questions. He said it had nothing to do with his current work as a consultant. “Let me be clear, no business advantage has been sought or received as a result of this arrangement and I have always followed all conflict of interest requirements,” he said. Conservative MP Michael Barrett said he was concerned Ossowski and his new employer, which does significant business with the government, could benefit. “It seems that there would be a commercial advantage to having there now their senior advisor and executive with this firm to have access to all of their information from their calendar emails and associated documents.” Advertisement 6 Article content Ossowski rejected that and said he acted entirely appropriately. “Given all that's gone on for this ArriveCan discussion over the last couple of years. Do you really believe that I would further put myself into jeopardy by pursuing something that had some conflict of interest.” National Post [email protected] Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what's really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here Article content Share this article in your social network Share this Story : Faulty, expensive ArriveCan app 'was still the right answer,' former CBSA head tells MPs Comments Join the Conversation Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information. Loading... Latest National Stories News Near Elliot Lake This Week in Flyers