July 9, 2010

(Letter sent to the editor of The Globe and Mail)

To the Editor:

We’d like to make a couple of points in terms of your editorial. Last year, Canadian consumers and businesses spent $7.3 billion with Canada Post, and trusted us to deliver almost 11 billion pieces of mail to 15 million residential and business addresses. More than half of that was traditional mail, such as personal correspondence and bills.  So Canada Post remains a very significant contributor to the Canadian economy – and the only company present in every community.

Having said that, we understand the world is changing – which is precisely why we’re changing with it. In the next decade, 33,000 of our 71,000 employees will depart - most of them through retirement. Our Postal Transformation program, to which you refer, involves the replacement of outdated, decades-old equipment with new, improved mechanized processes.  This will allow us to significantly reduce our workforce through attrition and will save us roughly $250 million a year by 2017.  We will be a broader communications company that uses electronic channels much more than we do today. In short, we are creating a leaner, more affordable, more productive, flexible and safer workforce – and a Canada Post that reflects, understands and responds to the evolving needs of Canadians and Canadian businesses.

Anthony Wilson-Smith
Vice-President, Communications and Public Affairs
Canada Post Corporation
Ottawa