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Canada Post looking to fix losses Exec wouldn't say if price of mail in Yellowknife will go up
Graeme McNaughton
Northern News Services
Published Friday, June 21, 2013
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Canada Post executives were in Yellowknife on Wednesday as part of a national tour to find ways to stay relevant after reports that the mail delivery service lost millions of dollars last year.
"As a Crown corporation, we don't want to be a burden on taxpayers," said Mike Shearon, Canada Post's general manager of plant operations for western Canada. "We want to see how we can be relevant for the next 100 years."
Shearon is taking part in a series of countrywide public meetings to gauge possible solutions to Canada Post's money problems.
Canada Post is currently on track to lose $1 billion per year by 2020, according to a report from the Conference Board of Canada.
The report also made recommendations to help save money for Canada Post, such as using alternate day delivery rather than daily delivery and the use of community mail boxes, which already exist in Yellowknife.
Other recommendations from the report include raising the price of postage by as much as 10 per cent per year, freezing employee wages and slowing delivery times.
According to Canada Post, community mail boxes are half the cost of having mail delivered to homes on a daily basis. The commissioned report from the Conference Board of Canada said this change would save Canada Post an average of $576 million per year by 2020.
Shearon said the mail delivery business is transitioning away from letters, with one billion fewer letters being mailed in 2012 than 2006.
On its website, Canada Post said the business is moving toward more parcels and packages, spurred by the availability of online shopping options.
This is especially true in places such as Yellowknife, Shearon said, because residents use the service to stay connected with the rest of the country. He wouldn't say whether Canada Post agrees with the Conference Board of Canada's recommendation to raise the price of postage.
Outside of public meetings, Canadians can also submit written ideas on how to fix Canada Post on its website.
After the public meetings are complete, the input will be taken back to Ottawa, Shearon said, with a new course of action to be published at a later date.
"Canadians are our shareholders," said Shearon. "We want to be accountable to them."
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