Perfect timing. Road trip for a few weeks.
Canada Post - Huge losses
- Thread starter raginduck
- Start date
I have my doubts. They have a ton of legacy costs they can't avoid. I don't think they can offer competitive rates on parcel delivery. When they were profitable, letter mail was an order of magnitude higher. Horse drawn carriages were profitable and dominated personal transportation at one point too. That doesn't mean they can still be profitable at volume today.
Without a doubt there are many cuts that can and must be made without affecting service (mostly up the tree although reducing to fewer days per week may allow many at the bottom as well). Hopefully this government plan is real and not just lip service and CP can emerge as a viable entity for the next decade or more.
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On a slightly related note, although I don't think OPSEU was a major factor in this closure, they sure aren't helping themselves when they ignore all financial reality and try to get blood from a stone. We want more money quickly turns into enjoy EI when there is no more money to be had. FAFO lessons for public sector (and pseudo-public sector) unions are long overdue.
"Well, after 56 years in operation, Georgian College in Orillia (as well as Muskoka) will be closing its doors due to funding. As I type this, full-time support staff at the Orillia campus are currently on strike."
"Well, after 56 years in operation, Georgian College in Orillia (as well as Muskoka) will be closing its doors due to funding. As I type this, full-time support staff at the Orillia campus are currently on strike."
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Mad Mike
Well-known member
There is no easy return to profitability. CUPW productivity is about 50% of other major carriers, and even worse when compared to the new smaller local delivery workforces.
CPC's decline started around 2013. At that time the gov recognized the changes necessary to keep them from losing money, and they put a plan in action. 2015 Libs reversed the plan and CPC went into a marketshare tailspin in their most profitable sectors as they tried to prop up lettermail. They raised prices on parcels, lowered service standards -- basically, they opened the barn doors to let competition into their dominant position.
The genie is out of the bottle; there is no practical way CPC can regain parcel market share now that other carriers have built out competitive delivery networks. CPC's only path forward is rightsizing for mail delivery, they will continue to lose on packages, perhaps they sell that off or convert package delivery to Purolator entirely.
This could have been a different story if JT hadn't meddled in their business back in 2015. A decade of wallowing in losses and ever-decreasing workforce productivity is likely irreparable.
The feds won't shut them down, but as we are seeing they aren't going to let them continue as they are. Supermailboxes will save money over time, but that's not enough. The union needs to get its sh:t together and look for improvements in workforce efficiencies that match their competitors.
When was the last time you saw a union do that? If unions filled that roll, I think they could serve a very useful purpose and justify their existence. For instance, if you want a competent drywaller, call the hall and they will give you a number. Sadly, every single union I have ever seen protected every useless drunk dirtbag member as their primary priority as that maximizes union revenue. Union revenue is maximized with maximum number of employees at maximum pay. Improved productivity directly hurts union revenue.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
Georgian, like many other colleges, tapped into the foreign student surge JT engineered. It provided mountains of cash... it also changed the focus of many community colleges from training locals to enter the workforce with in-demand skills tech, medical, and administrative skills, to providing 1-year programs like supply chain management, office skills, etc that catered to foreign students looking for a path to a PR.
The college down the road from me went from 100% local students in 2015 to 90% foreign in 2024. A decade later, and the area has an acute shortage of tradespeople and medical support staff as the local colleges haven't churned them out for a while.
That's why I said slightly related. As with CP, college problems were made by management decisions but that doesn't change the current reality that they are insolvent and major changes are required.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
I hear you. It shouldn't be that way -- unions are there for a reason, I get that.
In my perfect world, unions would have similar rights and protections as employers, there would be no PSUs, and different unions would be free to compete for the right to represent existing locals.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
I think the college problems were germinated by gov. Opening the floodgates to students willing to pay $20K+ a year vs locals paying $5K can motivate management changes. Colleges hopped on the bandwagon and invested in staff and facilities, thinking the party would never end.
It's ending. Now they have to roll back to meet their traditional mandates -- rolling back is never cheap or easy.
