Why a Public Postal Service?

Postal service in Canada has united the country since Confederation.

In a country that spans a continent, the one thing you can count on wherever you go is a Canada Post office and a postal service that serves all of us, no matter where we live.

Many of us use digital technology to communicate with each other, but Canadians still rely on mail and parcels for many daily activities – business, shopping and bill payments.

That is why Canada Post is a Crown corporation. Crown corporations are created by governments for specific public policy objectives – in this case, delivering the mail.

Crown Corporations are not corporations with strictly commercial objectives. They are supposed to be managed in the best interests of the public and work for the public benefit. Their performance should be assessed based on the social and economic benefits they provide, not just on the money they make.

Canada Post has consistently fulfilled its mandate to be self-sustaining.

But that is not the Crown Corporation’s only purpose. It is also mandated to deliver affordable, universal mail service, and to improve the services it offers the public. In addition, CUPW actively encourages Canada Post to expand its services to help continue to fund these mandates.

The focus on profits has undermined the public nature of our post office. Canada Post has eroded its connection with the public - the people who own the post office - and its sense of public accountability is not what it once was.