Canada Post lost more than half-a-billion dollars in the third quarter of 2025 and says it needs short-term financing to stay afloat as it contends with a heated labour dispute that has lasted for almost two years.
This is the postal service’s largest quarterly loss in history.
Canada Post reported a loss before tax of $541-million for the quarter ending Sept. 30, 2025, bringing its total losses in 2025 to $989-million. The Crown corporation blamed labour uncertainty for its poor financial results, noting that nearly all its year-to-date losses were incurred in the second and third quarters.
Explainer: The latest news on the Canada Post strike
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The Canadian Union of Postal Workers began labour action in May of 2025, with a ban on overtime work for all 55,000 of its members. In mid-September, the union instructed all its members to cease delivering unaddressed flyers.
But then on Sept. 25, after an announcement from the federal Public Works and Procurement Minister Joël Lightbound about restructuring Canada Post (with proposals that included ending door-to-door delivery and closing post offices), CUPW announced a nationwide strike that lasted for two weeks. They soon switched to rotating strikes, which are still continuing.
In a Friday press release, Canada Post said a big driver of losses was the dramatic decline in revenue from its parcel delivery business, which plunged 40 per cent in the third quarter compared with the same period a year prior. Parcel volume declined by 27 million pieces, while parcel revenue fell by $297-million.
The corporation said it has lost customers to other delivery competitors because of the unpredictability stemming from the labour dispute.
In the wake of a decline in letter mail over the past decade, Canada Post became increasingly reliant on revenue from the delivery of parcels to sustain its business.
But the growth of same-day private delivery couriers like Amazon and Dragonfly, which boomed in popularity during the pandemic, chipped away at Canada’s Post’s market share in parcels, leaving the corporation struggling to break even. Since 2018, Canada Post has accumulated more than $5-billion in losses.
Two months ago, Mr. Lightbound and the federal government – the sole shareholder of Canada Post – proposed a drastic revamp of the postal service, which sparked the ire of the union because it was still in negotiations with Canada Post about a new contract.
CUPW said it was blindsided by the government’s proposals to close post offices and end door-to-door delivery across the country – actions that would result in significant job cuts.
But Ottawa argues that it cannot keep bailing out Canada Post and that it will have to significantly change how it operates in order to become sustainable.
In January, the government loaned $1.034-billion to Canada Post to help repay bondholders whose investments were maturing in July this year. The corporation said on Friday that it expects to fully utilize the $1-billion by Dec. 31, and will need access to short-term financing in order to maintain solvency and support operations over the next 12 months.
Earlier this month, Canada Post privately submitted a plan to the federal government to streamline the postal service, which includes converting remaining home delivery to community mailboxes and modernizing its national retail network to better reflect where Canadians live (many post offices in more formerly rural, now suburban parts of the country, have a low utility rate).
At the Crown corporation’s annual meeting this week, CEO Doug Ettinger said Canada Post will have to downsize its work force as part of the overhaul. Several dozen managers were laid off at the end of October, as part of the restructuring.
In a statement this week, CUPW was heavily critical of Mr. Ettinger’s restructuring plan, noting that job loss from work-force cuts would be “catastrophic” to many small communities where working in the post office remains one of few good jobs. The union also said Mr. Ettinger was deliberately keeping Canadians and union members in the dark by not making public its restructuring plan that was submitted to Ottawa.
The union has long argued that Canada Post can turn around its financial situation in other ways besides cutting labour costs. Stamp-price increases and a return to stable parcel volumes, according to the union, would result “in a near break-even financial bottom line.”
“In fact, the cuts will cost billions of dollars to implement, when instead that money could be spent on expanding services and generating new forms of revenue,” the union said.
Negotiations between Canada Post and CUPW are continuing, supported by federal mediators. The union has, so far, made no mention of another nationwide strike like the one that took place in the lead-up to last year’s holiday season.
