How Canada Post lost $3B in six years | About That

I'd be willing to bet no matter how bad you think Canada post's finances are right now it's actually worse for starters Canada Post loses a mindboggling amount of money each year down $748 Million last year alone the year before that 548 million - 490 - 779 - 153 - 276 over the last 6 years which by the way is how long it's been since Canada Post last turn to profit it's lost almost $3 billion now something most people don't know about Canada Post is that they are a crown Corporation but they don't actually take any taxpayer dollars at all so they have to make money to survive but according to their own annual report letter mail volumes have eroded significantly there's been a major decline in our cash position Canada Post financial situation is unsustainable its long-standing role is under significant threat we expect to fall below our required operating and Reserve cash requirements by early 2025 let me translate that last one for you they'll be out of money by early next year they're in very deep trouble they're in very deep trouble so how did Canada Post get into this situation and what would it take to save it 2006 was a good year for Canada Post that's when letter mail volume peaked at 5. 5 billion pieces of mail scent but since then for almost 20 years now the number of letters Canadians send to each other has been in freef Fall here's what the last 10 looked like - 6. 1% - 6.

8% minus 8. 8% and it just keeps dropping by last year Canada Post was delivering only about 2 billion letters to the way I like to put it my university has about 35,000 students imagine if 30,000 of them just disappeared and when're all of a sudden we're a a university of 5,000 it would just be catastrophic that's what's happening to the post office and it's important to underline how lucrative letters were to Canada Post Canada Post used to turn millions of dollars in profits each year each working day of the year throughout Canada the post office handles about 10 million pieces of mail Canada Post says it made almost $100 million in the past year and it expects even bigger profits in the future it built huge cash reserves the experts we spoke to said there have at times been as much as a 50% profit margin on letter delivery which is a phenomenal margin and Canada Post has a monopoly on mail so by law only Canada Post can deliver letter mail to or from any point in the country at the standard postage rate now in exchange for this exclusivity Canada Post must follow a very simple requirement that it must deliver mail five days a week to all Canadians everywhere every address has to be served in some way in exchange they get their Monopoly on mail problem is that Monopoly is worth less and less every year and it's actually kind of a liability here's how many new addresses Canada Post had to add to its list of millions of Canadian addresses it has to serve 5 days a week rain or shine and those routs can get more and more expensive as communities expand and new homes get built farther and farther away from City centers we'll have 50,000 Canadian workers postal workers marching up and down the streets of Canada 5 days a week 52 weeks a year to 17.