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Canada Post lost $748 million last year, warns of "critical" financial situation (www.cbc.ca)
submitted 6 months ago by lautan@lemmy.ca to c/canada@lemmy.ca
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[-] SamuelRJankis@lemmy.world 20 points 6 months ago

While I agree with the sentiment I don't think being a public service should exclude them from being scrutinized.

The corporation cites declining revenue from delivery of letter mail and parcels, despite an increase in the volume of packages the company is delivering.

Letter mail has been declining since it peaked in 2006. Canada Post delivered less than 2.2 billion letters in 2023.

The cost of delivering mail and parcels is increasing, the company said. Canada Post has struggled to compete post-pandemic with the rising number of new, privately owned delivery companies that use what it calls a "low-cost labour" business model.

I think it was more controversial in 2014, but at a near 2 decade decline of letter mail volume thinking about reducing door to door letter services with community mailboxes seems pretty reasonable thing to at least discuss.

As far as competing with companies that are known for creating a job environment where their "contractors" have to piss in bottles. I don't think is a Canada Post issue.

[-] danielquinn@lemmy.ca 34 points 6 months ago

That's a fair point. So long as it's addressed from a position of "is the community being served well" and not "this should be run like a business". Canada Post has a difficult (and expensive) mandate: to service all of the country, no matter how remote, and the knee-jerk reaction to such headlines is often to privatise which would change that mandate to "earn as much profit for investors as possible".

I'm living in the UK these days, with private post, and private water companies. Things have literally been enshitified, with raw sewage flowing down the river Thames, so I'm concerned when I see such headlines.

[-] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 5 points 6 months ago

Scrutinizing our federal services is a Conservative precursor to killing it. Cruelty isn't the point but one can be mistaken.

[-] prodigalsorcerer@lemmy.ca 3 points 6 months ago

I think we need to address the gig economy as a whole. It's not good for anyone other than the companies who are exploiting these workers.

Beyond that, for Canada Post specifically, I don't understand why I need lettermail delivered 5x per week. Cut it back to twice per week, and suddenly one worker can deliver to 2.5x as many houses per week. Or even just give them a day off and "only" double the number of houses served in 4 days.

[-] psvrh@lemmy.ca 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Beyond that, for Canada Post specifically, I don’t understand why I need lettermail delivered 5x per week. Cut it back to twice per week, and suddenly one worker can deliver to 2.5x as many houses per week

This is how the rich get us:

  • "You don't need to see a doctor immediately, you can wait a few weeks" ...and then we have a healthcare crisis
  • "You don't need EAs or janitors in schools" ...and then you have an education crisis.
  • "You don't need a mental hospital, charities can pick up the slack" ...and then we have a drug crisis.

How about this, uncle moneybags, you don't need to be a multimillionaire, you don't need 14% ROI on everything and you don't need to keep your money after you die. Suddenly we have hospitals, schools and reliable postal delivery and you're just moderately rich instead of obscenely so.

[-] prodigalsorcerer@lemmy.ca 0 points 6 months ago

I'm not sure why you think I'm rich. Mail isn't like any of those other services. There is no mail urgent enough that it can't take one extra business day to arrive. If there is, it certainly wouldn't be sent through lettermail nor delivered by the normal carrier.

If we're going to raise taxes to pay for things (and by all means we should), I would much rather prioritize all of the other strawmen you brought up than continue to pay for lettermail delivery 5x per week.

[-] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 4 points 6 months ago

Constant and reliable mail delivery is what we requested they do. And remember in your Capacity Training what dropping the delivery rate will do for the costs to secure so much more saved mail between deliveries.

Remember that reliable mail is also part of our voting structure. Don't let the elitist cons make it harder for people to vote; stats say that will benefit them regardless of what we as Canadians want.

[-] prodigalsorcerer@lemmy.ca 0 points 6 months ago

Two days per week can still be constant and reliable. It's not like I actually get mail every day - the mail carrier just walks past my house about 2-4 days per week anyway. The only thing that comes on an actual weekly schedule are the flyers.

[-] psvrh@lemmy.ca 0 points 6 months ago

You might not get mail every day. Just like you might not see the doctor every month.

But some people do, and someone might get mail the days you don't, or might need to see a doctor on days you don't.

Why don't we target services for performance, instead of costs, and tax people until we have the revenue to support those services instead of cutting them down to the bare minimum we'll tolerate?

this post was submitted on 04 May 2024
24 points (80.0% liked)

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