The Way Forward for Canada Post

Canada Post

Back in May, the Government set up a Task Force to conduct a root and branch review of Canada Post’s operations, and the Standing Committee was then asked to examine the results of the Task Force.

The 200-page report, published on Tuesday (13 December), both presents key findings from the various consultants and offers recommendations on how Canada Post can progress its operation.

The Committee concluded that Canada Post “must  make  significant  changes  to  honour  its  mandate  and  provide  quality  services  that  meet  the  needs  of  Canadians  at  a  reasonable  price  and  on  a  self-sustaining  financial  basis”.

The Committee’s key recommendations included:

“To  ensure  better  relations  between  the  Corporation  and  its  employees, Canada Post  use  arbitration  and mediation  processes effectively  to enhance renewed  co-operation  and  trust  between  Labour  and  management  and provide  a  venue  for  discussion  of  creative  ideas  from  employees.

“The  federal  government  create  a  formal  transparent  and  accountable,  consultation  process  to  ensure  stakeholder  engagement  is  significant  and undertaken  regularly  in  accordance  with  the  Canadian  Postal  Service  Charter.

“Canada Post and the federal government take steps to modernize Canada Post’s defined benefit pension plan so that it can operate on a going-concern basis and no longer be subject to solvency funding requirements, including examining the feasibility of the following options:

• Adopting a shared-risk model between the employer and plan members;
• Pursuing joint management between the employer and plan members; and,
• Incorporating the Canada Post defined benefit pension plan into the Public Service Pension Plan.

“Canada Post maintain its focus on excellence in service in its core competencies in meeting the Canadian Postal Service Charter standards and explore additional venues of revenue within those competencies, e.g. e-commerce.

“Canada Post continue the moratorium on community mailboxes conversion, and develop a plan to re-instate door-to-door delivery for communities that were converted after 3 August 2015.”

The final point is one that is certain to draw some debate. As previously reported, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) has been adamant in its calls to maintain the “door-to-door” service and halt the conversion to community mailboxes. Prior to its election victory in 2015, the Liberal Party broadly supported the idea of putting a brake on the community mailbox roll-out. But its commitment appeared to waiver when it swept to power.