Does Canada still need Canada Post?
As Canadians have, increasingly, turned to the Internet for speedy communication, our monopoly Canada Post has seen its volume drop drastically. The resulting financial pressure caused Canada Post to begin phasing out door-to-door delivery. After campaigning to stop this conversion and restore door-to-door mail delivery where community boxes had just been installed — at great cost — our Liberal government placed a moratorium on further conversion and began “consultations.” A Liberal-dominated committee of Parliament has concluded (surprise!) that Canada Post should “continue the moratorium on community mailboxes conversion, and reinstate door-to-door delivery for communities that were converted after 3 August 2015.” Is this conclusion really justified? In fact, should Canada Post not just be abolished?
Mail delivery is not a pure public good like defence or policing. The service can readily be divided into the delivery of individual items. Moreover, if you don’t pay for the service — pay the postage — you can’t send anything. Is it perhaps a necessary good that would not be provided in sufficient quantities by the market — like elementary education which, without support, would leave the poor untaught?
Imagine life without Canada Post and its monopoly. Most cities have myriad private “same-day”courier services. There are also various countrywide parcel delivery services such as UPS and FEDEX. In a free competitive world, these businesses would no doubt happily expand to fill the void if Canada Post disappeared. However, at what cost? Would the cost of mail delivery rise to excessive heights? With free entry and exit of new companies, competition would, no doubt, keep quite reasonable (even reduced, perhaps) in most of Canada. Competition would ensure that customers pay the real cost of providing the service. However, some remote areas may end up paying unacceptably high prices. For these areas, a government subsidy would be in order since there are positive neighbourhood effects; we are all better off when, for example, northern communities have good communication — if only for the purpose of maintaining Canadian sovereignty. These routes could be put up for competitive tender. The extra cost could then fairly come out of the general purse — not be forced on other postal users only.
Now, this imaginary private enterprise system would, of course, be politically impossible to implement, but it illustrates that Canada Post, as such, is not indispensable. We could make a start, by simply abolishing Canada Post’s monopoly on first class mail and let them compete fairly. With their large established network, they would retain an inherent advantage, but who knows what would develop? If even that is a step too far, perhaps we could simply pass legislation which would automatically remove Canada Post’s monopoly after one day of a postal strike. Wouldn’t it be nice to have that tool in place before the next possible strike in July?
Recognizing, then, that Canadians could well get along without Canada Post as currently constituted, we can approach the issue of door-to-door delivery perhaps a bit more realistically. Given its financial problems, Canada Post must clearly operate in an efficient, businesslike manner. If not, let private industry do it. Perhaps, they would decide direct-to-door delivery is essential; perhaps they would not.
In the meantime, allow Canada Post to go full steam ahead. None of the recently placed boxes are much more than two blocks away from any residence. For most people, that should not provide an obstacle. In fact, even such a short daily walk will have health benefits. Moreover, these days none of the mail we receive is so essential that we have to check our boxes daily.
Of course, Canada Post should continue (and possibly improve) the service they provide to those who really are unable to get their own. It would not, however, be out of the question that a small charge be made for this service for those who can afford it. Not all, the seniors and disabled are poor!
In any case, continuing with conversion is only fair to those who have already been forced to pick up their mail. According to the committee report, only 27 per cent of the people receive door-to-door delivery — at a cost more than twice as much as that of group mailboxes! Why should such a small percentage of customers continue to receive this specialized service? Is that really fair?
Overall, I see no valid reason to prevent Canada Post with continuing its planned conversion. To reverse what was recently done would be the height of folly.