Letter to Ministers MacKinnon and Duclos Regarding the Strike by Canadian Union of Postal Workers

The Honourable Steven MacKinnon, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Labour and Seniors
Member of Parliament for Gatineau, Quebec
Place du Portage Phase II
165 de l’Hôtel-de-Ville Street
Gatineau, Quebec J8X 3X2
Via electronic mail

The Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Public Services and Procurement and Quebec Lieutenant
Member of Parliament for Québec, Quebec
Place du Portage, Phase III, Room 18A1
11 Laurier Street
Gatineau, Quebec K1A 0S5
Via electronic mail

Dear Ministers:

On behalf of chambers of commerce from coast to coast to coast, we are writing to raise concerns we are hearing from our members about the strike by Canadian Union of Postal Workers that has now shut down operations at Canada Post for nearly two weeks. This strike is damaging to our retail sector and has considerable impacts on northern, rural, and remote communities. We need to see government leadership that gets the postal service working for Canadians again.

Canada Post delivers almost six and a half billion pieces of mail, parcels, and messages, to more than 17 million addresses across the country, and as a result, this work stoppage has an impact on millions of Canadians and businesses who rely on the postal service every day.

This is yet another blow to our supply chains, with a disproportionate impact on Canadian entrepreneurs and small businesses engaged in e-commerce, many of whom are counting on doing a considerable amount of business during the holiday season. This is only exacerbated in northern, rural, and remote communities where alternatives to Canada Post are not available.

But the effect of this strike is not limited to the retail sector; many Canadian families are counting on Canada Post to deliver cheques from providers in the pension and benefit industry. Further, we have heard that public hearings for housing developments could be delayed due to municipalities’ inability to mail out notification forms to the community, meaning this strike could also slow down homebuilding in the midst of a housing crisis.

Canada’s supply chains have been under constant strain in recent years due to wildfires, floods, blockades, and the COVID-19 pandemic. We saw more than three weeks of strikes last year across the ports in British Columbia and the St. Lawrence Seaway, and as you know all too well, labour disputes over the past few months that paralyzed Canada’s rail network and shut down our largest East and West coast ports. Added to the lack of predictability resulting from disputes with Canada’s border agents, as well as Air Canada’s cargo network, there has simply been no reprieve for Canadians counting on stable prices and predictable movement of goods.

While we acknowledge your engagement and efforts to have all parties resume negotiations alongside federal mediators, Canadian families, communities, and businesses need to see a resolution. We urge you to immediately intervene and resolve this dispute, as we cannot allow Canadians to continue to pay the price of inaction.

Sincerely,