Canada Post says another bailout needed as it continues to bleed cash

After starting the year with a $1-billion federal loan, Canada Post says it will need another bailout within a month or two as the Crown corporation hemorrhages cash, putting it on track for its worst fiscal year yet.

It reported the highest quarterly loss in its history Friday, as the beleaguered mail service contends with stiff competition for parcel delivery and disruptions from an ongoing labour dispute.

The loan of $1.03 billion from Ottawa in January “was meant to carry the corporation through the government of Canada’s fiscal year ending March 31, 2026,” it said in its quarterly report.

But now it expects that money to be “fully utilized” by Dec. 31 because of the hit to revenues it attributes to the ongoing strike action by its 55,000 mail carriers.

“The corporation will need to access short-term financing facilities or other measures to maintain solvency and support operations over the next 12 months,” it said.

The organization lost $541 million before taxes in its third quarter. The “unprecedented” losses ballooned 72 per cent from $315 million in the same period a year earlier.

“Canada Post’s financial situation continued to deteriorate in the third quarter,” it said in a release. “Ongoing strike activity and uncertainty continued to drive customers to competitors for their deliveries.”

Revenue from parcels — its most lucrative segment last year — fell 40 per cent to $450 million amid a volume decline of 27 million pieces.

The decrease saw parcel division sales tumble below those of mail delivery — a unit that has seen letter volume decline every year for nearly two decades.

“The company is facing the most severe and challenging financial situation in its history,” it summed up.

With losses topping $5.5 billion since 2018, Canada Post faces big questions about its business model and its future as letter volumes plunge.

The bargaining saga with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers has now stretched past the two-year mark as the busy holiday season looms.

CEO Doug Ettinger said at the company’s annual meeting on Tuesday that it expects to lose up to 30,000 employees — to retirement or voluntary departure — over the next decade as it tries to get costs under control.

Federal Procurement Minister Joël Lightbound unveiled in September a suite of changes aimed at helping Canada Post transform its business model. They include allowing it to add more flexibility to mail delivery standards and routes, shutter some rural post offices and expand community mailbox service to more addresses.

Canada Post submitted a plan to the federal government earlier this month to capitalize on those changes, but details of the proposal will not be made public while Ottawa reviews it.

“Losing millions of dollars every day isn’t sustainable, and Canadians can’t keep paying that price,” said Laurent de Casanove, a spokesman for the minister, in an email.

The organization faces an “existential crisis,” he said. “We want to see Canada Post modernize and transform so it can keep serving Canadians for years to come.”

The plunge in parcels revenue stood out as the most “shocking” part of the quarterly report, said Ian Lee, an associate professor at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business.

The Canadian e-commerce market is expected to double over the next decade, according to Canada Post. But its market share is “going down as fast as e-commerce is going up,” Lee said.

“What’s going to save Canada Post is parcels — that’s if they can reinvent themselves.”

Though strike actions over the past year may have scared off customers, business was already declining before that.

Between 2020 and 2023, Canada Post’s shipments shrunk by nearly a quarter to 296 million parcels, according to past reports.

On Friday, Canada Post said it lost $989 million in the first nine months of the year versus $345 million a year earlier.

It said the bulk of those losses came in the second and third quarters, saying they reflect the impact of labour uncertainty on the business amid ongoing rotating strikes by its union.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2025.

Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press