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Re. Bruce Stevens letter Shut down Canada Post (Dec. 10)
Canada Post is a Crown corporation and, as such, is financially supported by the Canadian government—read taxpayers.
A recent letter to Castanet suggested it be shut down. I believe that letter got some of the answers to the issues that the Corporation is currently going through. The corporation does, indeed, appear to be out of touch with its position in the modern world, (with) a broken business model and employees who are out of touch with reality. But should it be shut down?
Canada Post has been around for a long time, and is pretty much an essential service for Canadians. Yes, we have the Internet and all the other electronic ways (social media) for contacting friends and family but isn't it nice to get Christmas and birthday cards in the mail?
We have courier companies to ship our parcels but there is a cost for using them (and that's partly what has caused the losses seen by Canada Post). More and more shopping is now being done on-line. Canadians use retail store outlets less, which really means more and more items needing to be delivered. Canada is a very big country, so it does require a dedicated delivery service to get items to those remote places.
I don't understand how or why Canada Post is in the financial mess it finds itself in. The corporation has everything it ever needed to take over all the mail and shipping services Canadians could ever want—logistics, depots, employees—and there really shouldn't be a need, or place, for (courier companies such as) FedEx, UPS, Loomis, and Purolator.
Why are we seeing Amazon and eBay using the services of IntelCom when we have Canada Post? (I have no issues with any of the courier companies mentioned, all of whom provide excellent services to their customers.)
As theletter suggests, our weak and ideologically driven federal government really needs to appoint a new (Canada Post) corporation board with the mandate to change the way Canada Post operates. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers needs to get onside and work with the changes that are needed to bring the post office back to a true Canadian service.
Canada needs Canada Post but Canada Post needs to come into the 21st Century and provide a full postal and courier service. That really means seven days a week to meet the needs of Canadians shopping on-line and that will likely need more employees.
Malcolm Roberts, Kelowna
(Editor’s note: Canada Post is a Crown corporation that operates at arm’s length from the government. Its operations are funded by revenue generated by the sale of its products and services, not taxpayer dollars. Also, courier company Purolator is 91% owned by Canada Post.)
