Canada Post

Canada Post logo

Canada Post (French: Postes Canada) is a Canadian postal service operated as an independent crown corporation. The successor to the Post Office Department of the Government of Canada, Canada Post was created on October 16, 1981 by the Canada Post Corporation Act[1] to set a new direction for the postal service, creating more reliable service and ensuring the postal service's financial security and independence.

Current operations

In 2004 Canada Post handled 10.9 billion mail items. It employed 70,000 people in its traditional mail operations and an additional 12,500 at the 94% owned Purolator Courier parcel delivery subsidiary.

Canada Post delivers to 13 million addresses daily, Monday to Friday, using a combination of traditional "to the door" door delivery, by 15,000 letter carriers, supplemented by approximately 6,000 vehicle routes in rural and suburban areas, and truck delivery of parcels in urban areas. A more recent electronic delivery method for routine bills and statements was introduced in 1999, named e-Post.[2] In terms of area serviced, Canada Post delivers to a larger area than the postal service of any other nation, including Russia (where service in Siberia is limited largely to communities along the railroad).

The price of mailing a domestic letter in Canada through CPC is only 51 cents, one of the cheapest among industrialised nations. Also, taking into account the vast landmass that Canada occupies and the relatively minute population, Canada Post offers an excellent service. Regular mail reaches its destination in four days and First Class mail reaches anywhere in Canada in just one day.

There are 280,000 retail points of deposit for mail, a combination of CPC staffed locations and franchises which are operated by a private retailer in conjunction with a host retail business.

Overall revenues for CPC in 2004 were $6.7 billion (US$5.6B), of which the traditional mail business made up 81%, Purolator 17% and electronic and consulting activities generated 2%. Income after taxes was $147 million (US$121 million). The corporation has generated a profit annually since 1994. A portion of the profit does go to the federal government.

Canada Post Systems Management Limited (CPSML) was founded by the CPC in 1990 to market the company's systems and technology in the global marketplace. As of the end of 2000, there were 80 successful projects in 38 countries.

Canada Post (French: Postes Canada) is the Federal Identity Program name. The legal name is Canada Post Corporation in English and Société canadienne des postes in French.

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Relay box. Used by letter carriers to refill their bags along their route.

History

Mail delivery first started in Canada in 1693 when Pedro da Silva was paid to deliver mail between Quebec City and Montreal. Official postal services began in 1775, under the control of the British Government up to 1851. The first postage stamp (designed by Sir Sandford Fleming) went into circulation in Canada that same year. It wasn't until 1867 when the newly formed Dominion of Canada created the Post Office Department as a federal government department (The Act for the Regulation of the Postal Service). It took effect April 1, 1868, providing uniform postal service throughout the newly established country. The Canadian post office was designed around the British service as created by Sir Rowland Hill, who introduced the concept of charging mail by weight and not destination along with creating the concept of the postage stamp.

Canada Post started early with airmail, with the first airmail flight taking place on June 24, 1918 carrying mail from Montreal to Toronto. Regular airmail service began in 1928.

The 1970s was a tough decade for Canada Post, with major strikes combined with annual deficits that had hit $600 million by 1981. This state of affairs made politicians want to rethink their strategy for the federal department. It resulted in two years of public debate and input into the future of mail delivery in Canada. The government sought to give the post office more autonomy, in order to make it more commercially viable and to compete against the new threat of private courier services such as UPS. On October 16, 1981, the Federal Parliament passed the "Canada Post Corporation Act"[3], which transformed Canada Post into a Crown corporation to create the Canada Post Corporation (CPC). The legislation also includes a measure that legally guarantees basic postal service to all Canadians. It stipulates that all Canadians have the right to expect mail delivery, regardless of where they live.

Historical sites

Ontario

First Toronto Post Office - still in operation today (with a museum component).
Air Canada Centre - the exterior of the building is the former Canada Post Delivery Building (the outside facade shows mail delivery in Canada).

Yukon Territory

Dawson Post Office (External Link) - National Historic Site of Canada

Timeline

1693 - First paid mail delivery within Canada
1775 - British Government begins offering mail service in Canada
1851 - Canadian Government takes control of mail delivery
1867 - Canada Post is created as a federal department
1971 - Initial implementation of the postal code
1981 - Canada Post Corporation Act is passed by Parliament
1981 - Canada Post is turned into a Crown Corporation
1993 - Canada Post purchases a majority stake in Purolator Courier

Services offered by Canada Post

Letter services

Lettermail
Incentive Lettermail
Xpresspost
Priority courier
Addressed Admail
Unaddressed Admail
Catalogue Mail
Publications Mail
Purolator Courier

Parcel services

Regular Parcel
Expedited parcel
Light Packet (to international destinations)
Small packets (to international destinations)
Xpresspost
Priority Courier
Purolator Courier

Addressing envelopes

Any letter sent within Canada has the destination address on the centre of its envelope, with a stamp, postal indicia, meter label, or frank mark put on the top-right corner of the envelope to acknowledge payment of postage. A return address, although it is not required, can be put on the top-left corner of the envelope in smaller type than the destination address.

The price of postage for a standard-size domestic letter, as of January 16, 2006 is 51¢, which, according to Canada Post, is among the lowest basic postage rates in the developed world. This is because the basic postage rate is capped at 66.67% of the rate of inflation. All other services are not capped and have generally increased above the rate of inflation. Effective November 16, 2006, Canada Post will begin offering a Permanent Stamp for basic domestic postal items. This new stamp will retain its value without requiring that postage be added to old domestic postage stamps whenever the corporation increases the basic postage rate.

Official addressing protocol is for the address to be typed in block letters, using a fixed-pitch typeface (such as Courier). The first line(s) of the address are for the personal name and internal address of the recipient. The second-to-last line is the post office box, general delivery indicator, or street address, using the shortened name of the street type and no punctuation. The last line consists of the city name, a single space, the two-letter province abbreviation, two full spaces, and then the postal code.

Examples:

JOHN JONES MARKETING DEPT 10-123 1/2 MAIN ST W MONTRÉAL QC H3Z 2Y7	JOHN JONES 1425 JAMES ST PO BOX 4001 STN A VICTORIA BC V8X 3X4
JOHN JONES 2765 7TH CONCESSION SITE 6 COMP 10 RR 8 STN MAIN MILLARVILLE AB T0L 1K0	JOHN JONES GD STN MAIN WALKERTON ON N0G 2V0

Noted Stamps

Facts and figures

The Canada Post vehicle fleet consists of over 6000 cars and delivery trucks.
Canada Post is the 5th largest employer in Canada
20,000 letter carriers travel more than 165,000 km each workday.
In 1957 - Canadian scientist Dr. Maurice Levy invented the automatic postal sorter, which could handle 200,000 letters per hour (which was more than all the mail delivered in Ottawa). It was first installed at the Langevin Building in Ottawa.

Organizational issues

Labour troubles

Canada Post has a history of troubled labour relations with its trade unions, particularly the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and the Letter Carriers Union of Canada (which merged with CUPW in 1989) culminating in periodic strike action which has brought mail service in Canada to a halt. There have been at least 19 strikes , lockouts and walkouts between 1965 and 2005 including several wildcat strikes. A number of these strikes have seen the corporation employ strikebreakers and most, since the 1970s, have resulted in back-to-work legislation being passed by the Canadian parliament.The current contract with CUPW expires on January 1,2007.

Canada Post was also the setting for one of the most controversial labour rulings of recent years. After several prosecutions for theft at Mississauga's Gateway Postal Plant, the union won a ruling from a labour board that the workers involved could not be dismissed as the length of the investigation exceeded the ten-day limit in the collective agreement under which any allegation of misconduct had to be brought to the attention of the worker. Although the ruling was reversed on appeal, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that although the decision may have been incorrect, it was not so totally without merit that the labour board's decision should be overturned. The court noted the language was in the collective agreement to keep supervisors from holding infractions over the head of a worker indefinitely.

External links

Canada Post Website
Canadian Postal Archives - History site run by the Government of Canada
Library and Archives Canada - Various links to history of Canada Post websites (Run by the Government of Canada)
Universal Postal Union homepage