Canada Post says it will move ahead with plan to end home delivery

Canada Post is moving ahead with its modernization plan, which will see the end of door-to-door mail delivery as had been expected under restructuring directives, the Crown corporation said in a statement Tuesday.

The changes come as part of the federal government’s direction to Canada Post to “implement transformative changes to ensure we can meet the evolving needs of Canadians without becoming a recurring burden on taxpayers,” the statement said.

“These proposed changes include converting the remaining addresses that still receive delivery at the door to community mailboxes and modernizing our retail network,” a Canada Post statement said.

Last year, the federal government said Canada Post would be allowed to end door-to-door mail delivery to individual addresses and close or convert some post offices in a bid to stabilize its operations and restore its financial footing.

The government will also allow Canada Post to adjust its delivery standards for non-urgent letter mail, allowing it to be moved by ground instead of air to “reflect today’s lower volumes.”

Joël Lightbound, the minister responsible for Canada Post, said the changes are necessary to ensure the survival of the beleaguered national mail carrier and Crown corporation.

“This situation is not sustainable,” he said. “Canada Post is effectively insolvent, and repeated bailouts are not a long-term solution.”

Lightbound had said last fall, when he lifted the moratorium on further conversions to community mailboxes, that there are roughly one-quarter of Canadians still receiving daily mail delivery — about four million addresses — who will now be served by community, apartment or rural mailboxes instead.

Lightbound said those conversions will be phased in over the next nine years, “the bulk of which” will be in the next three to four years.

— With files from Global’s Sean Boynton