Canada Post said Tuesday it has cut an unknown number of positions as part of its government-mandated restructuring efforts and a goal to “align our management team.”
The company said the changes “will align with the government’s expectation that leadership and structural change from within the Corporation is essential,” alongside a series of reforms to the financially struggling company’s mail delivery service announced last month.
“This is part of our corporate-wide restructuring efforts to better align our management team with the future needs of the organization,” Canada Post told Global News in a statement.
“Canada Post must take decisive action to deliver the services Canadians need in a way that is financially sustainable.”
The company shared a message sent by president and CEO Doug Ettinger to senior Canada Post leaders announcing the changes.
“Earlier this week we informed some of your colleagues that their positions were no longer required,” Ettinger writes. “These changes are a continuation of our corporate-wide restructuring efforts to better align our management team with the future needs of the organization.
“While these decisions are sometimes necessary, they are never taken lightly.”
Both Ettinger and Canada Post said they would not be sharing specific details as the company continues to work on its “transformation plan” that implements the government’s reforms.
Government Transformation Minister Joël Lightbound asked Canada Post on Sept. 25 to come back with a plan within 45 days on how to transition remaining door-to-door mail delivery to community mailbox services, as well as close some post offices in areas no longer considered rural. The reforms also include relaxing letter mail delivery standards.
The minister said the changes will save Canada Post hundreds of millions of dollars annually. The company reported over $1 billion in operating losses last year, and says it is losing $10 million per day.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), which is in the middle of drawn-out negotiations with Canada Post, has yet to comment on the cuts.
Earlier Tuesday, leaders from CUPW and the Canadian Postmasters and Assistants Association (CPAA) urged MPs at the House of Commons government operations committee to mandate public consultations on Canada Post’s future before moving ahead with the reforms.
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The changes announced by Lightbound will “gut the public post office, eliminate thousands of unionized jobs and cause real hardship in communities across this country,” CUPW national director Jan Simpson told the committee.
Canada Post has said it intends to reduce its overall workforce as part of its transformation, but reiterated Tuesday that those cuts will be achieved mostly through attrition — a claim that CUPW has disputed.
Both unions agreed changes were needed at Canada Post, but disagreed with the company and the government on what those changes should be.
CUPW argued Canada Post has not been honest about the reasons behind its financial struggles, noting that solving the labour dispute could help stabilize operations along with cutting non-labour operational costs.
Some MPs appeared surprised when the union also pointed to a “conflict of interest” from Canada Post’s majority ownership of Purolator, which earned a $294 million profit before tax last year despite an $841-million loss for Canada Post as a whole. That disparity conflicts with Canada Post’s assertion of declining parcel delivery revenue and market share, CUPW said.
“You’re shocked because you have not talked to the union,” CUPW negotiator Jim Gallant said. “And parliamentarians are starting to talk to the union, and that’s what needs to happen because everything you’re being told by Canada Post is not the truth.
“The post office has not been genuine with parliamentarians, with the government.”
Lightbound defended the government’s reforms at the committee last week, insisting that “fundamental” mail service to rural, remote and Indigenous communities will be maintained under the changes. He said the measures are a “first step” to right-sizing a company that has grown too large to account for a decline in letter mail.
Simpson on Tuesday said Ottawa should walk back the changes and instead hold a “true consultation” with Canadians about what the future of the post office should look like.
CPAA national president Dwayne Jones said the government should increase the timeline for Canada Post to report back on the reforms to 100 days and keep the post office closure moratorium in place throughout that time, while also holding public consultations.
He said there are several other ways Canada Post can modernize and generate revenue, including through government and financial services and even EV charging stations, that can transform post offices in smaller communities into “community hubs.”
The postmasters’ union has called for Ottawa to establish a minimum access distance standard that would ensure no gaps are created from post office closures or reduced delivery.
However, when asked by MPs what that standard should be, Jones declined to give a strict figure and said it would depend on each jurisdiction’s specific needs.
Other witnesses Tuesday urged Canada Post to move ahead with necessary reforms and for the company and CUPW to reach a deal to restore mail delivery service.
Paul Deegan, president and CEO of News Media Canada, said the union’s ban on delivering flyers and other unaddressed mail earlier this year struck a blow to community newspapers across the country that depend on the service.
However, he acknowledged that the end of door-to-door delivery could be “devastating” to those same local journalists.
Canada Post confirmed to Global News the company and CUPW will sit down with a federal mediator later this week for their first negotiation in nearly a month.
A date has not yet been set for the meeting.
The two parties haven’t met since Canada Post tabled an updated offer on Oct. 3, which the union has said largely recycled elements of a proposal voted down by union membership in the summer.
Simpson told MPs that Ottawa has “hindered” CUPW’s push for a fair agreement with intervening moves like the announced reforms and sending Canada Post’s earlier offers to a union vote, as well as a back-to-work order that ended last year’s strike.
“Instead of real bargaining, Canada Post management has relied on the government’s frequent interventions to push through its own agenda,” she said.
CUPW members have been on the picket lines for more than a month now but switched to a rotating strike model roughly two weeks after its nationwide walkout, which came hours after Lightbound’s announcement in September.
—With files from the Canadian Press