It’s nice to know that your neighbors are having similar problems to yours, even if their solutions are different. The current problems of Canada Post that involve pension funding and the expense of dropping mail on every doorstep are very similar to our experiences down here in the United States. Their solution is one that our postal service down here has pondered, too.

The plan is to phase out door-to-door mail delivery in urban areas. Yes, forcing postal customers to leave their homes and pick up their mail at a post office or community mailbox (CMB).

Canada Post estimates that it costs $269 per year to deliver to a home mailbox, versus $117 to deliver to a box. (All figures in this story are in Canadian dollars, but the CAD-USD exchange rate is pretty much one to one right now.)

The postal service plans to phase out urban mail delivery over the next five years. About ten million people currently use CMBs, and the new plan will make the total fifteen million.

Along with the announced cut in service will come a rate hike: individual stamps will now cost $1, but only 85¢ when purchased in a book. They currently cost 63¢.

Canada Post and the USPS have a lot in common: both are self-supporting government corporations with huge pension funding responsibilities that they’re struggling to meet.

About 6,000 postal workers will lose their jobs over the next few years due to the change to CMBs.

Canada Post to phase out urban home mail delivery [CBC]

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