Canada Post: Road to Reinvention

Is it time to shut down Canada Post?

Canadian postal workers plan to strike if their demands aren’t met. While this news could raise eyebrows, it didn’t raise much concern for most Canadians, who are unlikely to feel the impact even as the holiday season approaches. Canada Post’s slide into irrelevance seems almost inevitable—but is it really time to shut it down?

Not quite. Shutting down Canada Post would have both immediate and long-term implications, affecting individual Canadians and government operations. Rather, Canada Post could transform itself into a modern, thriving enterprise that connects all Canadians, potentially becoming a national model of innovation and integration in the digital age. But getting there will mean addressing core issues and reinventing from within. Let’s take a look at the roadblocks—and the possible paths forward.

The Symptoms of Decline

Canada Post’s financial struggles aren’t new. To offset losses, CP has scaled back: closing retail outlets, halting home delivery in many areas, and shifting the “last mile” delivery cost to customers by introducing communal mailboxes. While these cuts may have delayed financial collapse, they haven’t reversed it.

This retreat from core services has hurt Canada Post’s ability to compete, especially in parcel delivery, where new players, including some big ones. To CP’s probable embarrassment, Amazon, who could have been a major customer and partner for Canada Post, has successfully built its own delivery network, largely due to Canada Post’s capacity issues.

Another critical issue and the main driver of the looming strike is employee morale. According to CP’s internal reports, employee engagement hovers at an improbable 70%. However, based on my analysis of the available corporate and Glassdoor data, the employee engagement level at CP is likely much lower, reflecting a wider trend in Crown corporations. Low engagement paired with high reported job satisfaction—a common combination in government agencies—creates inefficiency and stagnation, as many employees are content but not driven to excel.

Many of those companies, with secure financial life support from the government, while plagued by low employee engagement, manage to maintain job satisfaction high enough to declare themselves good employers. They tend to be inefficient and slow – but with a “happy” workforce (think of your last contact with any government agency).

CP’s decade-long financial problems have exhausted this option, making things worse: engagement drives satisfaction but not the other way around, and it is employee engagement that defines organizational efficiency.

This is not a purely economic problem. The root cause of corporate inefficiency is located upstream, where the principal decisions about the corporate policy and its very existence are made. Or – quite often – are not taken seriously. It is not uncommon that a company established during the industrial revolution over 150 years ago, becomes lost in the reality of a knowledge economy where “soft” factors determine the winner.

Lesson 1: Declaration of high engagement does not improve morale.

Lesson 2: Job satisfaction is not engagement; it does not improve efficiency.

A Company Stuck in the Past

Canada Post operates within a legacy culture that struggles to keep up in the knowledge economy. This outdated structure is instantly visible when you open CPs corporate home page. Their “Values” and “Principles,” despite good intentions, ring hollow. The stated values “Trust. Respect. Deliver.” sound more like a placeholder (Are these nouns? Verbs? Both?), while the 3 principles “we matter as individuals, we matter to one another and we matter to our country” on which the confusing values are “founded” sound more like an invitation to go on strike rather than to look for ways to improve productivity.

The resulting cognitive dissonance confuses employees rather than inspires them, adding to low engagement and reduced productivity. If you all “trust” and “respect” each other, then why there’s a strike notice? And if “deliver” remains at the core of your existence, then why switch to community mailboxes and float the idea of two times a week delivery?

CP’s broader mission is equally muddled. Apparently, it is: “We’re passionate about our customers, our employees, and the communities we serve.” But in the context of shrinking services, this mission feels hollow, producing more confusion than motivation, and ultimately leading in the wrong direction.

Most damaging outcome of the direction loss is the CP’s recent spin-off of their IT and logistics units. On paper, of course, this will “save costs.” In reality, these were exactly the two directions where CP could excel and possibly dominate the market. Because knowledge is what today’s economy is all about, not a more ergonomic mailbag.

Lesson 3: Unclear Purpose (Mission) and Values do more harm than none at all.

The Path Forward: Purpose, Values, and Culture

Despite its challenges, Canada Post can find a way to stay relevant—but only if it redefines itself with a bold, purpose-driven approach. This will be a very challenging but entirely possible cultural turnaround. Here are the top-level steps that have a good chance to give a rebirth to the iconic Canadian company and become the blueprint of change for the entire Canadian industry.

Here are three essential steps that will give CP a good chance to give a rebirth to the iconic Canadian company and become the blueprint of change for the entire Canadian industry. These are the steps that any turnaround company should start with:

1.      Redefine Purpose for Clarity and Direction

CP’s first step must be a genuine and concise Purpose statement that aligns with its role in today’s Canada. Rather than vague commitments, CP needs a purpose that is actionable and inspiring. For example, a mission of “making connections across Canada” or, simply, “Connecting Canadians” would unify CP workforce and help them see the impact of their roles.

As a result, the new, meaningful purpose of the company may be quite different from what we see today. As its economic value diminishes, the share of typical postal services will decline. “Connecting Canadians” will maintain universal postal service while building new revenue streams, depending on what is the finalized new Purpose and Vision of the company.

It will be only natural for a 150-year-old company to adjust its direction. Many CP’s centenarian peers have done just that: Nokia started as a paper mill, later switching to making tires and rubber boots; Bombardier – as snowmobile manufacturer; and a much younger Amazon – as an online book store.

Lesson 4: Start with a Purpose. Align Senior Leadership around it. Then they will be able to explain Purpose to their teams.

2.      Analyze Market Position and Chart a New Direction

With a clear Purpose, CP can assess its current market position and develop a strategy for growth. CP has unique advantages given Canada’s geography and demographics, and it can build new revenue streams while maintaining universal service. Ideas worth exploring include:

1. Expanding parcel delivery for e-commerce retailers
2. Diversifying into logistics and integrated services for rural areas
3. Creating digital service hubs for remote and Indigenous communities
4. Offering secure digital and community services (especially for the elderly, and for remote and Indigenous communities), from banking to public polling to national elections

These moves would give CP a competitive edge, build resilience, and offer Canadians more value. Based on the core principle of evolving the Mission and expanding services rather than abandoning them, they would allow Canada Post to become a stronger and more versatile player in the logistics market, offsetting costs with new revenue streams.

Wonder why CP employees do not consider these opportunities but rather prefer to call a strike? Because they do not see any direction.

Lesson 5: “If you don’t know where you are going any road can take you there”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

3.      Redefine Values to Drive the Right Behaviors

The new Purpose and reimagined business activities will call for new behaviors and values that drive these behaviors. Vague or aspirational values won’t cut it.

This crucial step is ignored by many “leaders.” Vague or aspirational values won’t drive the workforce anywhere but to a general strike. Boeing’s current experience is another example. Their corporate values are professionally obfuscated in an impressive corporate word salad, and include “engineering excellence,” “be accountable,” “apply Lean,” and “Lead on safety, quality, integrity and sustainability.” The contradiction between these good words and the reality has been obvious to Boeing employees, so their recent strike was not a surprise to anybody.

Lesson 6: Before introducing any change, define what behaviours will take you to the Purpose.

The Long Road to Transformation

Turning Canada Post into a modern organization will require patience, strategy, and phased execution. It won’t happen overnight and will require difficult choices around staffing and leadership. Those who do not align with the new values may need to move on. Misalignment between aspirational and real values creates resistance, which ultimately leads to inefficiency and, in extreme cases, unrest.

The decline of Canada Post isn’t inevitable. The company will face growing pains and financial challenges along the way, but with a renewed Purpose, defined values, and a commitment to building a culture around innovation, employee engagement and customer satisfaction, it can regain its relevance.

More importantly, a successful transformation at Canada Post could set a national precedent defining the path to Canada’s national renewal, fueling economic growth, scientific innovation, and Canada’s global reputation in the knowledge economy.