Commonwealth—The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) will sit down with Government Transformation Minister Joël Lightbound, the federal minister who is responsible for regulating Canada Post, on Wednesday in the middle of a rolling national strike that is plaguing mail delivery nationwide. The union is holding Lightbound responsible for causing the work stoppage and putting contract negotiations at risk through recent policy changes they claim are threatening the future of Canada’s postal system.
The walkout, in its second week, began shortly after Lightbound outlined a package of far-reaching reforms to Canada Post. The reforms will reduce the volume of deliveries made in a week, consolidate some post offices, and eliminate door-to-door delivery eventually. The union clarified that the measures will eliminate thousands of good jobs, destabilize the public postal system, and gut rural and remote communities that are almost exclusively reliant on traditional mail service.
Lightbound was initially supposed to meet with CUPW leadership before the announcement, but negotiations were stalled. The meeting is the first in-person meeting between the minister and union representatives since the strike began. CUPP will be taking the meeting as a time to call on the minister to drop proposed reforms and negotiate the latest contract offers Canada Post has made.
The leadership of the union also filed the government’s supposed mishandling of the crisis. They believe the late intervention of the minister in the issue exacerbated the crisis, leading workers to call for a strike. The CUPW complains that the government’s action in releasing drastic structural changes into the public eye unilaterally without significant consultation undermined collective bargaining and destroyed management-postal worker trust.
The administration, however, insists that it must transform Canada Post to ensure its long-term sustainability. Authorities say the Crown corporation is facing unprecedented financial pressures, losing tens of millions of dollars daily as mail volumes continue to erode, its costs rise, and it loses business to private courier firms. Based on government reports, Canada Post has incurred over $5 billion in losses since 2018 and is expected to incur an additional $1.5 billion in isolation this year. In response, Ottawa gave a $1 billion loan early in 2025 to maintain the corporation’s operations.
Lightbound’s office also reiterated the call to action, saying that the postal service is facing an “existential crisis” that jeopardizes its future as a provider to Canadians. The government has called on both sides to return to the negotiating table and negotiate a long-term agreement that works equally well for workers’, customers’, and taxpayers’ interests.
Despite government promises, the union remains wary. CUPW leaders argue that repeated federal intervention has thwarted movement at the bargaining table rather than fostering compromise. They maintain that repeated government intervention has repeatedly widened the gap between the parties, thereby making it all the harder to negotiate new collective agreements. The union asserts that the only way to achieve real progress is through bilateral bargaining, free from political interference.
The work stoppage has also had a ripple impact in Canada. The national mail service has been closed, causing drastic disruption to people, small merchants, and internet retailers alike, with holiday season purchasing just around the corner. Some small business owners have decried the impact of delayed deliveries and lost sales during the peak season.
One of the more contentious parts of the recent controversy is Canada Post’s removal of a long-standing clause in the collective agreement that, together with a federal moratorium, had protected 493 rural post offices from closure. Both the government and Canada Post think most of these communities have already been suburbanized or urbanized and can be more economically served through points of centralized delivery. The union contends that the closures would disproportionately affect rural, remote, and Aboriginal communities that depend on the local post offices as focal points of communication and services.
