Canada Post Strike: Delays pose challenge for Regina small business

Workers at Canada Post went on strike last Friday as the Crown corporation prepares for the holiday season, leading to an abundance of delivery disruptions.

For Kyle Moffatt, co-owner of Sticks and Doodles gift shop in Regina it’s “terrifying” to see.

The small business makes up to 40,000 Christmas ornaments yearly, making it the busiest time of year. But now over 100 packages have been affected, leaving the business owner looking for alternative delivery methods.

“We’ve essentially lost our ability to service rural Saskatchewan,” he said, adding those areas play a significant role for many of Regina’s small businesses.

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This is Moffatt’s first time dealing with a strike, and coming off of the pandemic, at first he didn’t expect it to have as much of an impact as it did.

Moffatt explained sending a package to a rural area using UPS would cost him $60 to ship three Christmas ornaments.

“That’s well over what it costs to make these things, and it’s really tough,” he said.

Moffatt said he has even considered hiring a family member to make sure the packages arrive on time.

He explained another big challenge is that the typical shipping cutoff deadline is approaching, and Moffatt worries that by the time the strike issue is resolved, he may not be able to ship packages by the end of the year.

Still, Moffat remains positive and urges buyers to still consider shopping locally rather than turning to places like Amazon this holiday season.

“I think this will make us better. We’ve been kind of dropped into the fire and forced to learn how to manage with different carriers, and we’ve learned a lot about different options,” he said.

“We really, really, from the bottom of our hearts, appreciate (customers) sticking with us,” he said.

“I know this is a very anxious time of year, there’s a lot of people you want to make feel important.0 We really want to help you make those people important.”