Canada Post lays off nearly 50 employees amid ‘critical financial situation’

A Canada Post employee parks a truck at a delivery depot in Vancouver, B.C., Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Canada Post laid off nearly 50 management employees as part of a restructuring effort earlier this week, the corporation says, in an effort to manage its “critical financial situation.”

About half of the staff laid off were based in Ottawa. Others worked in Toronto and elsewhere. Canada Post said the move will not impact service to Canadians.

Canada Post’s financial challenges were a key sticking point in strike negotiations with the workers’ union late last year. The corporation’s third-quarter statement recorded a $313-million loss, and said it expected “increasingly unsustainable losses” in the coming years.

It’s the second major round of restructuring reported so far this year. In January, 20 per cent of its senior executive roles were eliminated.

“Canada Post continues to take steps to minimize the impact on employees, with a management hiring freeze in place since last year and reviewing vacant positions when employees retire or leave the company voluntarily,” chief financial officer Rindala El-Hage said in an email to CTV News.

She said the company will continue to evaluate its labour costs and work with the federal government to return the company to solvency.

CTV News has reached out to the Canadian Union of Postal Workers for comment.

Also in January, the federal government gave Canada Post a $1-billion loan to help keep the corporation afloat. At the time, Canada Post said the loan would help it continue operating but would not solve its structural issues. Its finances have been eroding since 2018 due to “rapid” industry changes and “high labour costs.”

The crown corporation’s financial woes were widely publicized during the union’s four-week strike late last year, which halted mail delivery across the country. It only ended after the Canada Industrial Relations Board determined negotiations were in a stalemate and ordered employees back to work under their existing contracts.