A few weeks after being named minister in charge of Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), Filomena Tassi is polling Canadians on the possibility of making radical changes to Canada Post.
The changes proposed in the survey include the closure of post offices in rural areas, the end of home deliveries in favor of community mailboxes, the reduction in the frequency of delivery to three times a week or the increase in stamp prices and the replacement of employees by machines.
The mid-December poll came just three weeks after Canada Post announced $264 million in lost revenue at the end of the third quarter of 2021.
This is one of the reasons that prompted Minister Filomena Tassi and her team to explore different ways to reduce costs and losses for the state-owned company.
The results, obtained by Global News under the federal freedom of information law, show that a strong majority of those polled (70%) said they were against closing post offices.
Opinions are more divided on the other proposals, although a slim majority is in favor of delivery to post office boxes (48%) and the use of machines to replace workers (45%). Nearly 52% of respondents want the daily delivery service to be maintained and 42% do not want the price of stamps to rise.
“[Les Libéraux] campaigned in 2025 to restore door-to-door mail delivery after Conservative government cuts and here they are exploring ways to cut services to Canadians,” said the NDP MP for Courtenay—Alberni, Columbia. Briton, Gord Johns.
A self-funded company
In a telephone survey, 1,000 Canadians were asked whether the government should continue to financially support Canada Post or whether the company should be restructured in order to break even.
However, although it is a crown corporation, Canada Post does not receive financial assistance from the government. “I want to be very clear: Canada Post is self-funded and not funded with taxpayers’ money,” said Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) President Jan Simpson, who does not understand why the government is trying to mislead Canadians with a poll like this.
A disgruntled union
Minister Filomena Tassi drew the wrath of the union representing the 61,000 employees of Canada Post.
“We are really worried and disappointed that the government is carrying out a poll today about a reduction in postal services when the public is asking them to have more and not less,” said Jan Simpson.
“The employees of [Poste Canada] worked throughout the pandemic and for [le gouvernement] to do this survey, it’s insulting”, she mentioned, adding that the CUPW conducted its own survey on this subject. According to Ms. Simpson, Canadians want more services.
Reference-www.journaldemontreal.com