Canada Post Lost a Record $1.57 Billion in 2025. So What? | The Walrus

Canada Post is often criticized for difficult online services and long waits, and some question the need for postal delivery in an era of email and online shopping. Recent concern grew after a reported $1.57 billion loss in 2025, attributed largely to declining parcel deliveries as customers shifted away due to fears of strikes and interruptions. The deficit has become a political opportunity, with consideration of ending door-to-door delivery, closing rural post offices, and privatizing parts of the operation. The company also has billions in repayable federal loans intended to keep it solvent while it reforms. The reform plan aims to restore profitability or neutrality through structural changes and resolving long-standing labor disputes between the company and its workers.

"The most recent push to reconsider Canada Post was sparked by news that it had "lost" $1.57 billion in 2025, the deepest deficit in its history. Canada Post attributed much of the loss to declining parcel deliveries as customers, concerned about the prospect of strikes and service interruptions, turned elsewhere for shipping. The deficit has since become a political opening for Prime Minister Mark Carney's government, which is considering ending all door-to-door delivery, closing rural post offices, and potentially privatizing parts of the operation."

"And you might think: about time. I mean, the loss sounds bad, right? And when you consider that the postal service is into the feds for billions more in repayable loans, as it's gone at least $6 billion into the hole since 2018, well, then it sounds very bad. The loans are meant to keep the company solvent while it reforms; a long-term plan to get Canada Post back to profit or, at least, neutral."

"That plan implies both structural reforms to the business model itself and sorting out long-standing labour struggles between the company and its workers. In the meantime, you know what they say: a billion here, a billion there, and soon you're talking real money. As alarming as those losses may be, how we talk about them matters. Beginning with the frame of a "loss." Yes, Canada Post is losing money. Yes, the current model may be unsustainable"

Read at The Walrus