The federal minister responsible for Canada Post told a parliamentary committee the corporation is losing $10 million each day.
Joël Lightbound appeared before the Government Operations and Estimates Committee on Friday, and said Canada Post has accumulated approximately $5 billion in losses since 2018.
“In 2024 alone, it lost over $1.3 billion,” Lightbound said. “And in January of this year, they required a $1-billion injection.
“The fact of the matter is … Canada Post is effectively insolvent.”
The committee is investigating the current situation at Canada Post.
Lightbound told the committee he’s confident both Canada Post and CUPW are committed to finding a sustainable path forward.
“Canada Post provides an essential service to Canadians and in particular to rural, remote and Indigenous communities,” he said. “And Canadians rightfully want it saved.”
But the minister said more bailouts from the federal government just to maintain the status quo is not the answer.
“As minister responsible, I must ensure that the overall direction of Canada Post aligns with the government’s policies and objectives,” he said. “And that implies making responsible, but at times difficult decisions.”
Those decisions led to announced changes the government wanted Canada Post to implement, which led to postal workers walking off the job for the second time in less than a year.
Conservative MP Jeremy Patzer questioned the minister about the timing of those government recommendations.
“Why wait until they’re in the middle of job action?” Patzer asked. “It’s not like this year and last year was the first year is that they were losing hundreds of millions of dollars, right? I mean, it was pretty evident for years before COVID even hit, it was evident that this was the pathway that this that this was going down.”
Lightbound acknowledged it might have been better to implement changes 10 years ago.
“However, I would argue that given that for the first time the federal government had to invest or inject $1 billion just to keep the lights on at Canada Post … I think that warranted change and beginning the transformation of Canada Post,” he said.
The hearings will continue Tuesday, when CUPW representatives will testify.
