As Canada Post workers start to vote on the final employer offer today, new data from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) finds that a postal strike could push 63% of businesses to walk away from Canada Post permanently.
“Yo-yoing in and out of strike mandates is causing Canada’s small businesses – one of Canada Post’s last groups of profitable customers – to leave for good,” said Dan Kelly, CFIB president.
“Small business owners and other consumers need certainty. 13% of small businesses permanently dropped usage of Canada Post during the 2024 strike and every time Canada Post goes on strike, more and more businesses leave forever.”
The CFIB is Canada’s largest association of small and medium-sized businesses with 100,000 members across every industry and region.
According to CFIB research, four in five businesses still use Canada Post. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of those businesses use it for sending cheques, while 61% send other letter mail. Over half (58%) like to use Canada Post for its low cost and convenience (50%), while reliability (25%) and customer service (9%) ranked much lower.
CFIB said it estimates the 2024 strike cost small businesses between 75 million to $100 million each day. Most businesses (71%) responded to the disruptions by encouraging customers to use digital options, nearly half (45%) turned to private couriers, while 27% delayed mail.
“In its most recent annual report, Canada Post reported having only 24% of the market share in parcel delivery compared to 62% in 2019. CFIB recent data shows small businesses (73%) mostly rely on private couriers for package delivery. If Canada Post doesn’t change its business model, it will continue losing critical market share making it impossible for the corporation to turn around its losses currently measured at $10 million per day,” explained the national organization.
“The current model at Canada Post is in dire need of massive reform. It’s long overdue for the federal government to implement the well-studied changes that have been required for over a decade,” said Corinne Pohlmann, Executive Vice-President of Advocacy at CFIB.
“Small business owners deserve a long-term plan and a postal service they can count on.”
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