Why Small Businesses Need Canada Post to Work

The Reality of the “Holiday Scramble” This past holiday season, Province of Canada made a difficult choice: they walked away from Canada Post after 11 years. While it was a temporary hiatus – it highlighted the unreliability of Canada’s crown mail corporation.  Province of Canada hadn’t found a better or less expensive option either – they simply needed stability during their busiest period.

This is the reality facing small businesses across Canada. Many are using private couriers because of temporary predictability – but most would prefer to use Canada Post for price and service reliability. In 2026, Canada’s government will likely face a choice – privatize or invest.  At the BWA we stand firmly in camp invest.

Why?

Canada Post is Essential Infrastructure We need to stop thinking of the postal service as just a “delivery company.” It is one of Canada’s greatest small business assets. The price is the price is the price regardless of where a business is shipping to in Canada.

• Universal Pricing: A business in Moose Jaw competes nationally on the same terms as one in Toronto. No zones, no rural premiums, and no corporate volume discounts required.

• Price Discipline: Without Canada Post keeping them honest, private courier costs would skyrocket for every small business in the country. We’ve seen this in other countries and in multiple other industries. Rarely does privatization deliver on the promise of better prices and service.

Investing in Canada maintains a predictable level of pricing and service during a period of time when major uncertainty is striking fear into the hearts of business owners and their Profit/Loss statements. When costs like shipping go up they hinder a business’s ability to reinvest in wages, benefits, or growth plans.

Across the pond we’ve already seen what happens when essential services are handed over to private oligopolies. The UK privatized Royal Mail in 2013. By 2024, performance collapsed – only 75% of first-class mail arrived on time – while stamp prices more than doubled. That same year, the 500-year-old institution was sold to a foreign billionaire.

We cannot afford to replicate the failures seen in Canada’s grocery and telecom sectors, where massive consolidation has driven prices up and service quality down. Denise Hearn and Vass Bednar’s The Big Fix highlights exactly how concentrated markets harm small businesses by stripping away choice and leverage. Surrendering our postal infrastructure to the same consolidated market forces is a direct threat to the stability of Canada’s businesses.

By investing in Canada Post as public infrastructure, the government can provide extra stability that businesses need to stop playing defense and start reinvesting in their staff and communities. Securing the crown corp will help Canada’s government continue to build a sovereign system where:

• Service is the Priority: Businesses get a reliable, affordable cost and delivery floor they can count on to serve their customers anywhere in the country.

• Wages are Protected: Stable shipping costs allow owners to keep their focus on providing fair wages and innovation rather than padding margins against logistical spikes.

• Access is Universal: Every community, regardless of geography, remains an active participant in the national economy.

When infrastructure like Canada Post is left to drift, businesses are forced to pay an “uncertainty tax” through expensive workarounds and lost time. Investing in a modernized, public floor replaces that chaos with the predictability every entrepreneur needs to stop playing defense and start building for the long term.

Related Reading:

• Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project
• Canadian SHIELD Institute
• The Big Fix: How Companies Capture Markets and Harm Canadians
• We need to talk about Canada’s painful lack of competition – Vass Bednar
• “Canadian retailer drops Canada Post as its carrier ahead of holiday season” – CTV News