Friday September 12, 2025 | NATIONAL NEWS [Reporting from VICTORIA, BC]
Socioeconomic news analysis by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Customers may not miss the steady stream of flyers but Canada Post will miss the revenue from small businesses that use Canada Post to deliver printed flyers to mailboxes across the country.
Not delivering unaddressed flyers/Neighbourhood Mail (a big chunk of work by Canada Post workers to residential addresses) is part of escalated job action by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), as announced today.
That phase of job action will start as of 12:01 am local time on Monday September 15, 2025.
The previous overtime ban by CUPW workers (launched in May 2025) will now end as the flyer ban gets rolling.
Canada Post says that addressed items will not be affected, i.e. personalized mail, postal code targeting mail, and transactional mail.
Canada Post comment:
“This latest strike activity will only increase the uncertainty that is having a major impact on the business,” said Canada Post spokesperson Phil Legault in a statement today.
Canada Post says the gap between the two sides remains “substantial” after the union’s latest proposal maintained or hardened its positions on many issues.
“We encourage CUPW to come back with workable solutions that reflect our current reality and get the parties closer to a resolution,” said Legault.
Analysis:
It might be seen as a smart move by the union to hit the employer ‘where it hurts’. But further crippling of the employer to reduce their ability to generate revenue doesn’t really help resolve the broader long-standing issues.
The Canada Post Corporation and CUPW are far apart on fundamental issues like providing modern service to Canadian households and businesses through adaptation (in part) of the labour side of the business.
CUPW is against weekend service and part-time workers. They want to hold onto a model of employment that really hardly exists anywhere in today’s economy.
CUPW could show leadership in allowing the employer to adapt and stay financially afloat (Canada Post has been showing a financial loss for over six years, including a $407 million loss in 2025 Q2) — not only because modernization is *normal* in today’s economy and because they’re more likely to have jobs if the corporation is operational.
Now with the Us no longer allowing duty-free parcel shipping from Canada (effective August 29, 2025), Canada Post will probably see further financial loss as fewer businesses use Canada Post for parcel shipments.
Government’s role in fixing this:
Yes, there needs to be a change in Canada Post’s legislated mandate. It’s no longer appropriate to require delay delivering to every door; the move many years ago to installing community mailboxes is a clear recognition of that.
The federal government has yet to show any active interest in taking this level of action in a situation that is more than a labour dispute, it’s a paradigm shift in how the economy and society have changed.
Many households don’t receive personalized mail for days or even weeks. They do get a lot of flyers though.
If the ‘new’ Liberal government is serious about building a stronger economy that provides gainful employment (as is promised as one of the key aspects of major national projects), they need to include revision of Canada Post’s mandate on their list of legislative priorities.
The federal government probably sees the reliability of Canada Post delivering ‘to every address’ as part of the bedrock of the voting-by-mail system during elections. As well, CUPW has argued in the past that their door-to-door mail carriers are ‘eyes’ in the neighbourhood — a way of informing watching out for the well-being of people in neighbourhoods.
But there has to be a way to separate out that reliability factor and the role of community watchdog from the mainstay of everyday mail service (which is not required daily to every household). Both economics and common sense clearly require that shift.
===== RELATED:
- Carney announces five major projects to fast-track Canada’s economic transition (September 11, 2025)
- Canada Post advises business customers about new US prepaid export duties (August 24, 2025)
- What can possibly break the Canada Post bargaining stalemate? (August 6, 2025)
- Canada Post workers still on the job with overtime ban (May 23, 2025)
- Post-pandemic social anxiety in dogs leads to incidents for Canada Post delivery agents (July 17, 2021)
- Canada Post employees require safety around dogs (July 12, 2021)
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