Live updates as Canada Post goes back on strike

By CTVNews.ca Staff
September 26, 2025 

CUPW announces nationwide strike in retaliation of Ottawa’s ‘attack’ on workers


Canada Post is back in the throes of a national strike, and the corporation says mail and parcels are no longer being processed or delivered.

Workers walked off the job Thursday just hours after Ottawa announced door-to-door mail delivery will end for nearly all Canadian households within the next decade, favouring community mailboxes.

Canada Post says Canadians should expect delays during the work stoppage. Delivery of socio-economic cheques and live animals will continue during the strike.

Here are the latest updates:

11:32 a.m. EDT: Need a passport?

The federal government is encouraging people applying for passports to use couriers other than Canada Post if they are applying for their travel document by mail.
Here’s what the move means for items you may have been expecting

They say applicants can also visit a Service Canada Centre or passport office to begin the process.

The Canadian Press

Canada Post workers picket outside a distribution centre as part of a strike action in Montreal on Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi

11 a.m. EDT: ‘They’re trying to shoot their own foot’

Union negotiator Jim Gallant says the federal government’s plan could send Canada Post’s revenue south of the border.

He told CTV News Channel on Thursday that Ottawa’s plan is “going to shove people to other carriers,” and “maybe the government wants to give all this work to FedEx and UPS so the profits can go to the States.”

Luca Caruso-Moro, CTVNews.ca journalist.

10:15 a.m. EDT: Dozens of readers react

CTVNews.ca heard from dozens of readers reacting to the Canada Post announcement. Some welcomed the changes, saying they were long overdue, don’t go far enough and that the Crown corporation was no longer relevant. Meanwhile, other readers lamented the changes, calling them “another attack on services to our vulnerable seniors” or those with mobility issues.


Mary Nersessian, CTVNews.ca digital news director.

9 a.m. EDT: Impact will be ‘massive,’ CFIB says

“As expected, Canada Post workers are back on an immediate, nation-wide strike. The impact on small business will be massive,” reads a press release from the Canadian Association of Independent Business responding to the strike.

“Doing this in the lead-up to the critical holiday retail shipping season is especially troubling.”

Minister of Government Transformation, Public Works and Procurement Joel Lightbound speaks during a press conference at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa, on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby

The CFIB reiterated its support for the government’s overhaul of Canada Post operations, calling the strikes a “direct result” of inaction on the federal level and blaming former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s government.

The group also said last year’s Canada Post strike cost small firms over $1 billion.

Luca Caruso-Moro, CTVNews.ca journalist.

8:15 a.m. EDT: Jobs minister demands negotiation

Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu wrote that it’s up to the union and the Crown corporation to find the balance between the future of postal service and respect for employees.

“Federal mediators remain available to support the bargaining process, and I encourage both parties to continue working toward a fair resolution,” she wrote in a statement her office provided in response to the union’s notice.

The Canadian Press

Minister of Jobs and Families and Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario Patty Hajdu speaks to reporters ahead of a cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press)

8 a.m. EDT: Canada Post cuts were ‘inevitable’

Cuts to Canada Post services were “inevitable,” says one business expert amid news that the carrier will end door-to-door delivery, nationwide.

“The post office has been in long-term decline since 2006, when letters peaked in Canada,” Carleton University Business Prof. Ian Lee told CTV Your Morning in an interview Friday. “Ever since, it’s been going downhill like a ski slope.”

Lee notes that the declining volume of letter mail has come in spite of a growing population, but he also says the reason why isn’t obscure.

Ian Lee from Carleton University says Canada Post will need to lay off thousands of workers to cut back on costs as letter mail continues to decline.

“It’s called a smartphone,” Lee said. “Young people, and most people, don’t write letters. You don’t write your mother or father a letter; you send them a text, you send them an email.”

But that falling demand hasn’t been met with downsized costs, he notes, nor has there been significant growth in parcel deliveries, even with the rise of online shopping.

“They’re hemorrhaging cash.”

Charlie Buckley, CTVNews.ca journalist. Read the full story here.
Thursday: CUPW says announcement ‘an outrage’

In a statement posted to its website entitled “Public Post Office Under Attack,” the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) called the government’s announcement an “outrage.”

CUPW National Director, Metro-Montreal region Yannick Scott (left) and National Grievance officer Carl Girouard(right) look on as National President Jan Simpson speaks during a news conference in Ottawa, Friday, Sept. 12, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

The union said the changes, which would see some postal offices close, move millions of addresses to community mailboxes, and extending expected delivery time to up to seven days, could result in job losses.

Luca Caruso-Moro, CTVNews.ca journalist.

Five things to know about Canada Post’s future after Ottawa announces reforms

By The Canadian Press
September 26, 2025 

An overhaul to Canada Post's operations is on the way after the federal government delivered a suite of changes Thursday. A Canada Post vehicle sits outside a facility in Ottawa, Friday, Sept. 12, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Mail service is halted at Canada Post after unionized workers announced Thursday they are on a countrywide strike — the latest eruption in a labour dispute that has been going on for nearly a year.

The move came just hours after the federal government promised a suite of changes to overhaul the Crown corporation’s operations in response to significant financial losses.

Here’s what you need to know about the factors affecting the Crown corporation’s future.

What is Canada Post’s financial situation?

The mail carrier is hemorrhaging money.

In the second quarter of this year, Canada Post recorded a loss before tax of $407 million — the Crown corporation’s largest loss before tax in a single quarter. Canada Post reported a profit of $46 million in the same period a year earlier.

Canada Post lost $448 million before tax in the first half of 2025, following a loss before tax of $30 million in the first half of 2024.

Public Works and Procurement Minister Joël Lightbound said Thursday the corporation is losing about $10 million per day, despite the federal government providing a $1-billion injection earlier this year to keep it operational.

“Canada Post is now facing an existential crisis. Since 2018, the corporation has accumulated more than $5 billion in losses,” he said in a media statement.

“In 2024 alone, it lost over $1 billion, and in 2025 it is already on track to lose close to $1.5 billion.”

What is going to change?

The federal government is lifting a moratorium on community mailbox conversions, authorizing the mail carrier to convert the remaining four million addresses that still receive door-to-door delivery.

Ottawa says that by bringing them in line with the three-quarters of Canadians who already receive mail through community, apartment or rural mailboxes, it will save nearly $400 million annually.

The government announced it will also end a moratorium on closing rural post offices that has been in place since 1994, covering close to 4,000 locations. It said closing some of those post offices in regions that are no longer rural will reduce duplication in overserved areas.

To reflect a decline in delivery volumes — Ottawa said the average household now receives just two letters per week — non-urgent mail will be cleared to move by ground instead of air, saving Canada Post more than $20 million per year.

Ottawa said Canada Post’s delivery standards are woefully outdated, with operations designed for the higher volumes of years ago. Canada Post is delivering two billion letters annually, down from 5.5 billion two decades ago.

What’s the timeline?

Canada Post must come up with a plan within 45 days that outlines how it will implement these changes, the minister said.

As for making the switch from door-to-door delivery to community mailboxes, Lightbound said the full process will likely take close to a decade, though most areas will see changes much sooner.

“We’re talking about four million addresses,” he told a press conference.

“It’ll happen over the course of the next nine years, the bulk of which will be in the next three or four years.”

Wasn’t there already a report that recommended changes?

After a month-long postal workers’ strike during the critical holiday season last year, the labour minister launched an inquiry into the labour dispute that also looked at Canada Post’s financial status and viability.

The report from inquiry head William Kaplan concluded that Canada Post was essentially bankrupt. The board’s final report, tabled in May, showed Kaplan recommended an end to daily door-to-door mail delivery and an expansion of community mailboxes, among other measures to keep the postal service in business.

Some of the Kaplan report’s recommended changes would fall under the bargaining process and require agreement between the company and the union.

Other measures, however, are within the government’s purview and are among the changes Lightbound announced on Thursday.

What’s the status of the labour dispute?

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers announced a countrywide strike Thursday evening in response to what Lightbound announced. The union has not said what that strike will entail but one union negotiator told CBC News that different units are organically organizing picket lines.

A Canada Post spokesperson said in a media statement that no new mail will be accepted during the labour disruption.

Canada Post and the union representing 55,000 postal workers have been in contract talks for almost two years over issues like wages and part-time workers.

A strike and lockout lasted more than a month in November and December 2024. It ended only after then-labour minister Steven MacKinnon declared an impasse in the talks and asked the Canada Industrial Relations Board to order an end to the work stoppage.

In early August, union members rejected what Canada Post said was its final offer after the government ordered the contract to a vote. The union put forward its latest counter-proposal on Aug. 20, which Canada Post said would add significant new costs and restrictions at a challenging time for the postal service. The Crown corporation countered with a new offer earlier this month.

The union said in a press release on Thursday it was not informed about the government’s announcement ahead of time. But Lightbound said he met with union representatives last week and some of the issues they raised were reflected in the new government measures — namely, a review of management structure at Canada Post and the process for raising prices on stamps.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2025.