Aligning our network with a modern Canada

Canada Post’s proposed transformation plan will evolve the company’s network to match with how Canadians and businesses connect, transact and use the postal service today. We are building on our strengths, including our unmatched national reach and last-mile delivery that extends to every corner of the country – especially rural, remote and Indigenous communities.

We plan to optimize our network to deliver services that align with a modern Canada and meet the needs of Canadians in today’s economy, while understanding that we must get the balance right. By reconfiguring our network and modernizing our offerings, we can strengthen our ability to be fast, efficient and present in all communities.

Centralized delivery

A key part of Canada Post’s proposed transformation plan is to convert remaining door-to-door delivery to community mailboxes. This change – made possible after the government announced in September 2025 it’s lifting the moratorium on community mailbox conversions – will sustain cost-effective delivery and provide a similar service level across Canadian addresses.

For more than 40 years, homes built in new developments in Canada have received centralized delivery. Today, nearly three out of every four Canadian addresses have some form of centralized mail and parcel delivery, such as community mailboxes, apartment lobby lockboxes, group mailboxes or postal boxes. Meanwhile, less than a quarter of Canadian addresses currently receive letter mail at their door, while the remaining addresses are served by rural mailboxes.

Door-to-door delivery is the most expensive delivery method per address. It costs 75 per cent more to deliver to the door than to a community mailbox: $284 a year per address to the door, compared to $162 per address at a community mailbox.

Canada Post is spending a disproportionate amount on service for door-to-door delivery in established urban neighbourhoods – dollars which could be used to better serve the rest of the country. Almost 40 per cent of the annual cost of serving all Canadian addresses is spent on door-to-door service for less than a quarter of them.

This imbalance is eroding our ability to properly serve rural, remote and northern communities as well as their small and mid-sized businesses that depend on us.

Scope, timeline and savings

Canada Post plans to convert close to four million addresses that still receive door-to-door delivery to community mailboxes. These addresses are overwhelmingly residential and may include a small percentage of businesses with door-to-door delivery. The changeover is expected to begin in 2026 and take approximately five years to complete.

Once completed, these new urban door-to-door conversions are expected to save hundreds of millions of dollars annually – which will help sustain delivery to all corners of the country.

Centralization of some rural mailboxes is also envisioned under the proposed transformation plan, which would generate additional efficiencies and improve productivity. Like door-to-door delivery, rural mailbox delivery ($281 a year per address) costs significantly more than centralized delivery through community mailboxes. Centralization of rural mailbox delivery is at an early stage of assessment.

Conversion process

When converting addresses in an area from door-to-door delivery to community mailboxes, Canada Post follows a structured process that includes municipal engagement, customer notification, installation and service start up. The process from start to finish typically takes 14 to 16 months, although timelines may vary by community, depending on municipal approvals, site readiness and installation sequencing.

We will work with local officials to determine suitable locations for community mailboxes based on factors such as safety, accessibility, proximity to the addresses they serve and input from residents. We will also engage with our bargaining agents during the conversion process.

Delivery Accommodation Program

As centralized delivery expands, Canada Post is enhancing its Delivery Accommodation Program, which helps residential customers with functional limitations access their parcels and mail.

More than 17,500 households across the country currently benefit from some form of accommodation. The program offers accommodations that make mailboxes easier to use, such as sliding trays, Braille features or assigning a compartment that is more accessible. In some cases, weekly home delivery may be provided on a seasonal, temporary or permanent basis.

In October 2025, we completed a major upgrade to the Delivery Accommodation Program that provides consumers with an online portal to simplify and expedite the request process.

Retail modernization

In September 2025, the federal government announced that it was lifting a moratorium – established in 1994 – that prohibited Canada Post from closing or franchising corporate post offices designated as being in rural areas at that time. The rural moratorium created a list of specific retail locations (more than 3,400 active locations) that were prohibited from being closed.

Changes to post offices in these communities have only occurred in cases of natural vacancies, such as retirements or resignations, and where we were unsuccessful in finding replacement personnel. Despite urbanization and changes in many of these communities (e.g., Richmond Hill, Ontario and Gatineau, Quebec), this policy effectively froze the corporate post office network for more than 30 years. As a result, Canada Post has been unable to adapt to shifting population patterns or optimize its retail footprint.

Additionally, Canada Post’s collective agreements with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers have protected hundreds of urban post offices from being closed. In December 2025, the parties announced new tentative deals that will reduce the number of corporate post offices protected in the Urban agreement from 493 to 393, which will further enable the proposed retail modernization.

A network designed for an era of letter mail

Canada Post has the largest, most extensive retail network in Canada, with close to 5,800 post offices (including full-service and light-service models) serving communities in every corner of the country. Our post offices play a vital role in connecting Canadians and fulfilling our public service mandate. However, the network was designed in an era dominated by letter mail, where service was defined by the presence of a post office in virtually every community.

The network currently includes more than 2,200 dealer-operated post offices (full- and light-service), which are profitable. Meanwhile, the more than 3,500 corporate post offices, many of which serve rural, remote and Indigenous communities, have together incurred significant annual losses.

Our expansive network varies from urban leased and owned facilities to dealer-run outlets in pharmacies as well as those in Indigenous band offices and rural postmasters’ homes. In urban areas, corporate post offices with limited hours often operate alongside dealer-operated locations that offer extended hours and greater convenience. This overlap creates inefficiencies and does not reflect modern consumer behaviour. In rural regions, many small towns are served by multiple underutilized post offices, often open fewer than 35 hours per week.

Canada Post remains committed to ensuring that all Canadians, regardless of where they live, have access to affordable, efficient and reliable postal services. In fulfilling our social mandate, we continue to expand services tailored to better support Indigenous and northern communities. The future of the retail network must also reflect our dual mandate: ensuring service accessibility for all Canadians while achieving financial self-sustainability.

Aligning services with the needs of Canadians

In announcing it’s lifting the rural moratorium, the government directed Canada Post to provide a plan to transform and “right-size” the retail postal network to better reflect Canada’s demographic changes – while maintaining services and protecting access in rural, remote and Indigenous communities, and underserved areas.

Based on direction from the government, Canada Post plans to modernize and optimize its retail network of post offices to better align services with how Canadians shop and use the postal service. The Corporation will engage with its bargaining agents and municipalities during this retail transformation.

Canadians increasingly seek fast, convenient and self-directed service. The rise of prepaid parcel drop-offs, returns and online transactions has reduced the need for traditional, full-service post office visits. This shift supports a move toward consolidated locations and expanded self-serve options.

Our multi-year retail transformation will not be based on a one-size-fits-all approach. It will involve a careful and thorough review of our network. We will proceed thoughtfully and take into account the needs of each community, working closely with municipalities. Vital postal services in rural, remote and Indigenous communities will be protected. We’ll begin with areas that were once rural and are now urban and are well served with other post offices nearby.

We will also keep local communities, stakeholders and employees well informed throughout this initiative.

Foundation of our retail transformation

Guided by direction from the Minister, the retail component of the proposed transformation will be anchored in three commitments:

Maintaining comparable access for all Canadians: Canada Post remains committed to delivering essential services that are affordable, efficient and accessible to all Canadians and businesses, regardless of geography.
Ensuring service continuity in rural, remote and Indigenous communities: We will uphold our commitment to these communities by maintaining service continuity and expanding access where needs are identified, recognizing the vital role Canada Post plays as a public good in these areas.
Flexibility to evolve the network: Canada Post requires flexibility to adapt its retail and delivery network to respond to changing customer needs and market conditions, while continuing to protect service standards and ensure comparative service levels across all regions.

Guided by clear parameters and guardrails

Our proposed changes to the retail network will be guided by clear parameters and guardrails to protect service in vulnerable communities and underserved areas, while addressing redundancies and underutilized locations. Clear criteria will define which post offices will be excluded from the transformation. Post offices will be reviewed using consistent national decision-making factors to identify transformation opportunities.

Canada Post’s retail network will continue to serve as a reliable connector for people, commerce and communication across the country. We will ensure service continuity as well as comparative service standards between urban and rural areas, as included in the government’s direction. Our goal is to modernize the network to better reflect current usage patterns, while safeguarding universal service and ensuring we have the flexibility necessary to meet future needs.

Updating letter mail service standards

Recognizing the profound shift in how Canadians communicate – and the ongoing decline in letter mail volumes – we are adapting our letter mail delivery to reflect modern realities. Following direction from the federal government, Canada Post is planning to modernize its letter mail network while continuing to provide reliable service:

We will work with the government on proposed amendments to letter mail delivery standards in the Canadian Postal Service Charter.
For most Canadians, it is anticipated that changes to service standards will increase letter mail delivery times by one to two days. For those sending letters coast to coast, delivery times could increase by about three days.

Amending the letter mail service standards will provide the company with flexibility to adjust letter mail delivery based on operational demands and volume fluctuations. These changes are consistent with reforms that other international postal organizations have introduced to their letter mail service standards to better reflect their geography.

More efficient letter mail processing and transportation

The flexibility from these adjusted service standards will provide Canada Post with the additional time to deliver letter mail from coast to coast to coast at a viable cost. With the new letter mail standards, Canada Post will be able to do the following:

Increase productivity in its facilities by processing items more efficiently.
Realize network efficiencies including transitioning a large portion of letter mail from air transport to less expensive ground transportation.
Reduce the company’s environmental impact.

Canada Post anticipates that the change in letter mail delivery standards will not further accelerate letter mail volume decline.

Continuous improvement and other savings opportunities

Canada Post’s continuous improvement program will focus on cost-effective spending and improving core productivity, while minimizing the impact on employees. The changes are about managing existing internal operations more efficiently, allowing the company to provide more sustainable postal services and focus resources where they’re needed most.

We’re targeting efficiencies that will not impact our service standards, access points or the experience of Canadians, consumers and commercial customers.

Reducing overhead costs

Canada Post is also undertaking a comprehensive expenditure review that will allow the company to meet its commitment to responsible spending that delivers for Canadians – while supporting the goal of balancing the operating budget. The review is focused on finding efficiencies within our overhead costs while preserving the capabilities required to support transformation and growth.

Significant cost savings from attrition

As Canada Post transforms, the company has identified significant savings opportunities through projected high levels of attrition over the next decade. We need to capitalize on this generational opportunity in front of us to achieve necessary savings and secure the future of the postal service.

Overall, the total Canada Post workforce will experience natural attrition – through retirements and voluntary departures – of approximately 16,000 employees by 2030, and then by another roughly 14,000 employees from 2031 to 2035.
Achieving savings through natural attrition minimizes the impact on our employees and service to Canadians, while supporting the goal of making the postal service financially self-sustainable.
With the projected high levels of natural attrition, Canada Post will still be hiring thousands of new employees in the coming years to continue serving Canadians, including for weekend delivery.

Principles guiding our transformation

In October 2025, Canada Post shared the five overarching principles that will guide its transformation. These guiding principles represent Canada Post’s commitments to Canadians, customers and employees.

Prioritize service
We will provide reliable and affordable delivery for all Canadians while protecting access to vital postal services in rural, remote and Indigenous communities.

Proceed thoughtfully
While there’s a need to move with urgency, we will proceed thoughtfully to get it right and minimize how the changes affect Canadians.

Treat employees with respect
We will continue to be fair and respectful to our employees and prioritize their safety as we implement changes.

Keep Canadians informed
We will provide regular updates on our transformation to Canadians, customers, employees and other stakeholders, and give them as much notice as possible of any changes affecting them.

Be flexible
We will adjust our approach based on the evolving needs of Canadians.