Should Canada Post be privatized?

Should Canada Post be privatized?

There's been a lot of banter about changing Canada Post since a damning review by the Conference Board of Canada showed that the crown corporation is likely to incur losses of over $1 billion a year until 2020.

Those are taxpayer dollars, mind you, as the federal government is the sole shareholder of Canada Post. The Conference Board also recommended the beleaguered mail service freeze wages, reduce delivery days and eliminate door-to-door delivery with community mailboxes for urban customers in order to reduce costs.

The U.K. government has gone one step further: It recently decided to privatize the Royal Mail postal group, with an initial public offering of a majority stock in the company scheduled later this fall. It's something Canada Post should be watching carefully.


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Private investors demand a return on their investment, so band-aids like reducing services and increasing the price of stamps in order to curb losses wouldn't likely be tolerated. Instead, private investors might spur Canada Post's entry into electronic mail, diversify what's delivered or charge more realistic fees for bills and letters to travel to some of our country's most remote locations.

And, with private investors, Canadian taxpayers might not be staring at the prospect of an annual billion-dollar bill to sustain an outdated service that clearly hasn't managed to adjust to a rapidly changing marketplace.

So we ask you: Would you support Canada Post being privatized?

Have your say in the comments area below.