Public Works Minister Joël Lightbound said privatization of Canada Post is “not on the table,” framing the postal service as an essential public institution that must be stabilized through reforms rather than sold.
Lightbound’s stance comes alongside a cabinet-approved transformation plan that authorizes Canada Post to phase out remaining door-to-door delivery and convert to community mailboxes, move non-urgent mail by ground instead of air, and lift the moratorium on some rural post-office closures. The department describes the corporation as “effectively insolvent” and says these measures are required to restore viability.
These measures, Lightbound says, are required to arrest losses projected at “close to $1.5 billion” this year.
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Ottawa framed the move as a financial stabilization package, saying Canada Post is “effectively insolvent,” losing “approximately $10 million every day,” after more than $5 billion in cumulative losses since 2018, including “over $1 billion” in 2024 and a record $407 million loss in Q2 2025.
The government also noted a $1-billion cash injection earlier this year.
The largest line item is the conversion of the final one-quarter of households—about 4 million addresses—away from door-to-door delivery to community mailboxes, which Ottawa estimates will generate nearly $400 million in annual savings. A companion change will shift non-urgent letter mail from air to ground, targeted to save more than $20 million per year.
Letter volumes underpin the proposed cut as they fell from 5.5 billion in 2006 to 2.2 billion in 2023, according to the Industrial Inquiry Commission. Government figures also say that Canada Post’s domestic parcel share dropped from 62% in 2019 to under 24% today, eroding what should have been the growth offset to falling letters.
On the balance sheet, Canada Post reported a pre-tax loss of $841 million for 2024, its seventh straight annual deficit, and posted losses of more than $3.8 billion before tax since 2018.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers launched a nationwide strike on September 25 in response to the plan to phase out door-to-door delivery, halt some post-office operations, and relax delivery standards.
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