Why are stamp prices rising yet again?
With stamp prices set to rise, Frederick Green reminisces about a time when tuberculosis was widespread and everyone in town walked, biked or rode horse-and-buggy to a postmaster whom they all knew by name. A time when stamps cost 4 cents or less.
But that was rural Saskatchewan in the early 20th century.
“They keep on going up. The post office gets plenty for what they do,’ says Green, now 90 years old and living in Ottawa. ‘But on the other hand … it’s delivered to my house.’
The cost of domestic stamps will inch up a cent tomorrow to 52 cents, nearly quadruple the price in 1976. In the past decade, stamp prices have risen seven times.
Starting tomorrow, letters headed for the United States will cost Canadians 93 cents, an increase of four cents.
Despite many beliefs, Canada Post isn’t given free rein to raise prices. By government regulation, stamp prices can only rise by no more than two-thirds of the yearly inflation rate.
The corporation, though, faces a host of technological and demographic challenges.
Individual “snail mail” use has dropped as Canadians have begun choosing e-mail over traditional penmanship and companies have begun to consolidate various services into one bill, Canada Post recently reported.
It called them “a plethora of alternatives.”
“The volume of mail being delivered to each point of delivery is decreasing,’ Canada Post wrote in regulations published in the Canada Gazette, an official government publication. Meanwhile, new areas that need service are increasing.
Coupled with rising inflation, skyrocketing fuel prices and a yearly population increase of about 240,000 residents, who add more than CD20 million in extra expenses, the Crown corporation says it needs to recoup the costs.
Increased terminal dues, charged to Canada Post by foreign countries receiving mail from here, have also translated to additional costs for the company, it said.
“The rate increase is required to keep up with the customer’s needs,’ said Nicole Lemire, a Canada Post spokeswoman, but added that Canadians ‘enjoy the lowest rates among industrialized nations.’
In a statement, the corporation pointed out that while Canadians will pay CD1.55 for regular mail to foreign countries besides the United States a six-cent increase — the British paid CD2.28 for mail to Canada and Germans paid CD2.79.
Note: Canadians wishing to save some money before tomorrow’s rate increase can buy ‘permanent stamps’ (shown above) for 51 cents that can be used even after the new rate increase. The sale ends today.
