Although the Post Office Department was among the first to be organized, by mid-twentieth century the operation was on cruise control. By the 1970s, its large operating deficits became a concern. The problem was not about keeping Canadians united and in touch with the world through postal communication at fair rates, but failure to modernize operations, high labour costs, bureaucratic administration, and recurring strikes as postal workers interrupted mail service. Ottawa ended its preferential mailing rate for newspapers, a short-sighted policy framed no higher than a “cost-cutting” measure.
Given the Post Office’s vulnerability, entrepreneurial courier companies began encroaching, without challenge, despite the government’s monopoly. Sending items by courier became a business norm. Private companies were “cream skimming” the top postal operations. Post Office finances sank deeper into a financial swamp. By 1981, the Trudeau Government reordered postal services. No longer operating as a government department with a minister accountable to the peoples’ representatives in the Commons, the postal operations were spun out to a Crown corporation.
This pattern had become common through the twentieth century. Legislation created Crown corporations, commissions, boards, and agencies and delegated major realms of jurisdiction to these arms-length bodies. In theory, some minister still provided a link for democratic accountability; in practice, responsible governed vanished into an administrative twilight zone. From 1981, “Canada Post” would operate as a profit-making satellite corporation, free of government restraint and beyond political accountability. Services were cut, postal rates skyrocketed, and “direct mail marketing,” including flyers, became one of three Canada Post businesses.
Another was parcel delivery. Having once passively forfeited its parcel monopoly, Canada Post now bought Purolator to compete in the private sector with UPS, Canpar, Dynamex, Fedex, and others, becoming Canada’s biggest parcel delivery company, exceeding $2 billion in yearly sales. Canada Post spends millions on TV ads showing its red shopping cart delivering on-line purchases to Canadians, promoting distant shopping while local retail stores sag, even as Ottawa party leaders claim to support “small businesses.”
A Liberal representative, quoted last week, refused to intervene in the Crown Corporation’s business plan to scoop the flyers market, despite this being a predatory assault by a privileged business on newspapers valiantly struggling to serve Canadians. That, in a nutshell, is the problem. Actions taken behind the Crown’s corporate shield are no longer susceptible to accountability. Canada Post’s consecutive years of multi-million dollar profit-making epitomize why radical change is needed. The Trudeau government, despite earmarking $595 million over five years to help embattled newspapers, stands by while Canada Post cripples them.
It’s of a piece, a sanctioned Crown corporation laying waste small businesses and community newspapers.
