Providing postal service in a country as sprawling as Canada has always been a challenging proposition. We’re used to incremental increases in postal rates to cover inflation and whatnot. At a news conference today, Canada Post said that the next price increase would come into effect in March. It will see the price of a stamp rise from 63 cents to 85 cents (if the stamps are bought in a pack). If stamps are bought separately, the price jumps to a dollar.
Oh yeah, and Canada Post has plans over the next five years to phase out home delivery of mail in all urban centres. Instead, urban Canadians will get their mail at group mail boxes and other centralized mail points.
The moves are being made to try to staunch the flow of red ink at the corporation (which lost $104 million in the second quarter of 2013 alone), and is expected to result in the elimination of between 6000-8000 jobs. You can read more in this CBC report.
