Ottawa business owners are preparing for the long haul without Canada Post, with a
second strike
looming on May 23.
After recovering from the impacts of the strike that brought package delivery to a
halt over the holiday season
, local businesses that depend on Canada Post are bracing for another work stoppage.
“Many of our [small and medium enterprises] rely on Canada Post for their core operations, for their shipping, invoicing and receiving payments, and so they’re the ones who are at risk,” Sueling Ching, CEO of the
Ottawa Board of Trade
, told the Ottawa Citizen.
On May 21,
Canada Post offered
the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) a deal that included a 13 per cent wage increase. The union said the offer
fell short
on wages, cost-of-living allowances and part-time parcel delivery, among other disputes.
The union requested a two-week truce to review the offer, but Canada Post declined, setting the stage for another strike.
Gareth Davies owns Maker House, a retail store in Hintonburg that sells local and Canadian-made homewares and gifts.
Traditionally, 20 per cent of his sales have been online, but he said the buy Canadian push in recent months has pushed that volume up “significantly.”
Davies said he lost just under $5000 when a holiday advertising flyer never left the Canada Post distribution centre during the first strike. He isn’t waiting to see how another Canada Post strike will impact his business.
Before the first strike, Maker House switched to a Canadian parcel carrier ICS Courier, while the store also has Purolator and UPS as shipping options. Maker House still hasn’t switched back to Canada Post for most of their parcel delivery due to the ongoing uncertainty, Davies said.
Nathalie Carrier, the vice-chair of the
Ottawa Coalition of Business Improvement Areas
, said that “businesses are just drowning in impacts,” from the COVID-19 pandemic to the economic uncertainty around U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats, and now a second Canada Post strike in a matter of months.
Carrier said businesses have become accustomed to pivoting. Canada Post “is something that we pride ourselves on here in Canada, that many institutions that are Canadian-made and Canadian-trusted,” she said.
“But if you can’t trust a service as a business person and your livelihood depends on it, you will find other alternatives,” Carrier added.
However, Davies still has an affinity for Canada Post, both as a Canadian and an entrepreneur. He said he sees the value of the crown corporation and that he would consider returning to shipping with it once things stabilize.
“I would love to see them succeed and find solid footing in the new market of shipping, which is really led now by third-party, private companies, racing to the bottom for the lowest cost and fastest, cheapest delivery method, which does not include union wages,” he said.
Davies also said he supports Canada Post because of important services such as
delivery to rural areas, PO boxes and the pick-up centres.
Another example for Davies is postal stamp shipping. One of the top shipping options on Maker House’s website is the flat pack, which allows for delivery of smaller items, such as lapel pins and greeting cards. The flat-pack packages remain “a significant chunk of our online business,” Davies said.
“We did have to turn off our flat pack option, because Canada Post is the only courier who ships with stamps, so that low cost flat pack option was off the table during the last strike,” Davies said.
Maker House has turned off the flat pack option on its website this week with the looming strike, Davies added.
On May 22, the Ottawa Board of Trade surveyed their members and found that of 93 respondents, 60 per cent said that the Canada Post strike would negatively impact them, while 39.78 per cent said they wouldn’t be affected.
The last Canada Post strike was 32 days, and according to the Canadian Federation of Small Businesses, it cost an estimated $1.6 billion across Canada. Per day, that cost sat at around $100 million.
Our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark our homepage and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informed.
