Earth Day 2023: Invest in Our Planet. Take Responsibility

On Earth Day, 1 billion people from across the world will gather to fight for the green revolution. This year’s theme is “Invest in our Planet.” Earth Day events are calling on leaders in business, government, and civil society to take the climate crisis seriously and invest in a green economy.

Today is a good time to take stock of the progress we have made, and the work that remains to be done in our own campaign to fight climate change.

We’ve gotten Canada Post to commit to halving its greenhouse gas emissions from Scope 1 and Scope 2 by the end of the decade. We’ll see 14,000 new electric vehicles by 2040. And in the contract extension we signed in 2021, we ensured our Groups 3 and 4 members will get the training they need to perform maintenance and repairs on hybrid and electric vehicles.

But, for all we’ve won, Canada Post’s climate action plan still has a big hole: The Corporation has no plans to electrify rural mail delivery. Canada Post insists that emissions from RSMC drivers are “indirect,” as if RSMCs were subcontracted third parties and not the employees that they are.

Every workday, 7,369 RSMCs drive 403,555 kms to deliver the mail. That’s about one-third of the fleet excluded from the Corporation's climate plan. That’s not good enough.

Canada Post needs to take responsibility for all greenhouse gas emissions from mail and parcel delivery, not just the emissions from urban operations.

On the Environment Committee, we have been pushing Canada Post to do what’s right. Recently, we have submitted our concerns to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (the organization that sets standards for GHG reporting) as part of its public consultation process. We have also written a letter of complaint to the Science Based Targets initiative (the organization that approved CPC’s net-zero plan).

But Canada Post has dug in its heels.  The stakes are high. Ultimately, what it comes down to is: who is going to pay the costs of greening the rural delivery fleet? Will Canada Post take responsibility and invest in RSMC delivery, or will the corporation simply pass the costs onto workers?

Standing together, we can hold Canada Post accountable and make sure it takes its responsibilities seriously.

In solidarity,