Michael Taube: Canada Post’s $1.6B loss proves it’s time to privatize

Canada Post

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Just when you think that Canada Post couldn’t sink any lower into the financial abyss, the once-venerable Crown Corporation has set another record for futility and failure.

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Canada Post recently reported a loss of $1.57 billion (before tax) for the 2025 fiscal year. This number was so staggering that even CBC News felt compelled to point out “it’s yet another blow to the Crown corporation that’s already drowning in debt so badly that it’s surviving on $2 billion worth of federal loans to stay afloat.”

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This includes a $1.034 billion repayable loan the federal Liberals issued to Canada Post in January 2025. The belief at the time was that it could help sustain the operation as it faced “significant financial challenges.” Alas, this was nothing more than a pipe dream. As a devastating May 15, 2025 report by the Industrial Inquiry Commission suggested, Canada Post was facing an “existential crisis.” It was already “effectively insolvent, or bankrupt” and if immediate action wasn’t taken, “its fiscal situation will continue to deteriorate.”

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What does Canada Post plan to do? A recent news release stated “the severity of the corporation’s financial situation underscores the urgency to transform and meet the modern needs of the country.” But if you think about it, Canada Post’s long-standing inability (and, in some instances, refusal) to take the necessary steps to transform and modernize their organization put them in this messy situation.

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Many Canadians aren’t using physical mail as much and prefer quicker methods of communication including email, direct messaging and texting. The cost of a physical stamp for a domestic letter increased to $1.44 this year. Multiple strikes by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers have also frustrated our communities.

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Even if Canada’s reliance on physical mail has decreased, we can’t completely avoid sending out letters, envelopes and packages. We need competitive rates for postage stamps and overnight courier services. We need cost-cutting measures to reduce wasteful spending. We need fiscally sound strategies for rural delivery, super mailboxes and more.

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Enough is enough. It’s time for Ottawa to bite the bullet and privatize Canada Post. What’s the best way to do it? Lysander Spooner’s innovative experiment with a privately-run post office could serve as inspiration.

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Spooner was a unique and fascinating figure during the 19th century. He was a true jack-of-all trades: lawyer, political thinker, abolitionist and writer. He strongly believed in libertarianism, anarchism and, as strange as it may sound to some ears, free market socialism.

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His most noteworthy endeavour was when he established the American Letter Mail Company in 1844. It served as a direct competitor to the monopolistic United States Post Office. As he outlined in The Unconstitutionality of the Laws of Congress, Prohibiting Private Mails, the “power given to Congress, is simply ‘to establish post-offices and post roads’ of their own, not to forbid similar establishments by the States or people.”