Canada Post
Canada Post (
French:
Postes Canada) is a
Canadian postal service operated as an independent
crown corporation. The successor to the
Post Office Department of the
Government of Canada, Canada Post was created on
October 16,
1981 by the
Canada Post Corporation Act to set a new direction for the postal service, creating more reliable service and ensuring the postal services financial security and independence.
In
2004 Canada Post handled 10.9 billion mail items. It employed 70,000 people in its traditional mail operations and an additional 12,500 at the 94% owned
Purolator Courier parcel delivery subsidiary.
Canada Post delivers to 13 million addresses daily, Monday to Friday, using a combination of traditional "to the door" door delivery, by 15,000 letter carriers, supplemented by approximately 6,000 vehicle routes in rural and suburban areas, and truck delivery of parcels in urban areas. A more recent electronic delivery method for routine bills and statements was introduced in 1999, named e-Post. In terms of area serviced, Canada Post delivers to a larger area than the postal service of any other nation, including
Russia (where service in
Siberia is limited largely to communities along the railroad).
There are 280,000 retail points of deposit for mail, a combination of CPC staffed locations and franchises which are operated by a private retailer in conjunction with a host retail business.
 |
A Canada Post delivery truck in Ottawa |
Overall revenues for CPC in 2004 were
$6.7 billion (
US$5.6B), of which the traditional mail business made up 81%, Purolator 17% and electronic and consulting activities generated 2%. Income after taxes was $147 million (US$121 million).
Canada Post Systems Management Limited, CPSML, was founded by the CPC in
1990 to
market the company's systems and technology in the global marketplace. As of the end of
2000, there were 80 successful projects in 38 countries.
Canada Post (French: Postes Canada) is the
Federal Identity Program name. The legal name is
Canada Post Corporation in
English and
Société canadienne des postes in
French.
Mail delivery first started in Canada in 1693 when
Pedro da Silva was paid to deliver mail between Quebec City and Montreal. Official postal services began in 1775, under the control of the British Government up to 1851. The first postage stamp (designed by Sir
Sandford Fleming went into circulation in Canada that same year. It wasn't until 1867 when the newly formed
Dominion of Canada created the the post office as a federal government department (The
Act for the Regulation of the Postal Service). It took effect April 1st 1868, providing uniform postal service throughout the newly establish country. The Canadian post office was designed around the British service as created by Sir
Rowland Hill, who introduced the concept of charging mail by weight and not destination along with creating the concept of the
postage stamp.
The 1970s was a tough decade for Canada Post, with major strikes combined with annual deficits that had hit $600 million by 1981. This state of affairs made politicians want to rethink their strategy for the federal department. It resulted in two years of public debate and input into the future of mail delivery in Canada. The government sought to give the post office more autonomy, in order to make it more commercially viable and to compete against the new threat of private courier services (such as
UPS). In 1981, the Federal Parliament passed the "Canada Post Corporation Act", which transformed Canada Post into a
Crown corporation. The legislation also includes a measure that legally guarantees basic postal service to all Canadians. It stipulates that all Canadians have the right to expect mail delivery, regardless of where they live.
Ontario
*
First Toronto Post Office - still in operation today (with a museum component).
*
Air Canada Centre - the exterior of the building is the former Canada Post Delivery Building (the outside facade shows mail delivery in Canada).
Yukon Territory
*
Dawson Post Office (External Link) - National Historic Site of Canada
*
1693 - First paid mail delivery within Canada
*
1775 - British Government begins offering mail service in Canada
*
1851 - Canadian Government takes control of mail delivery
*
1867 - Canada Post is created as a federal department
*
1981 - Canada Post Corporation Act is passed by Parliament
*
1981 - Canada Post is turned into a Crown Corporation
*
1993 - Canada Post purchases a majority stake in
Purolator CourierLetter services*Lettermail
*Incentive Lettermail
*Xpresspost
*Priority courier
*Addressed Admail
*Unaddressed Admail
*Catalogue Mail
*Publications Mail
*
Purolator CourierParcel services*Regular Parcel
*Expedited parcel
*
Light Packet (starting July 24th 2006 to international destinations)
*Small packets(to international destinations)
*Xpresspost
*Priority Courier
*
Purolator CourierAny letter sent within Canada has the destination
address on the centre of its envelope, with a
stamp,
postal indicia, meter label, or
frank mark put on the top-right corner of the envelope to acknowledge payment of postage. A
return address, although it is not required, can be put on the top-left corner of the envelope in smaller type than the destination address. The price of postage for a standard-size domestic letter, as of
January 16,
2006 is 51¢, which, according to Canada Post, is among the lowest basic postage rates in the developed world.
Official addressing protocol is for the address to be typed in
block letters, using a fixed-pitch typeface (such as Courier). The first line(s) of the address are for the personal name and internal address of the recipient. The second-to-last line is the post office box, general delivery indicator, or street address, using the shortened name of the street type and no punctuation. The last line consists of the city name, a single space, the two-letter province abbreviation, two full spaces, and then the
postal code.
Examples:
JOHN JONES
MARKETING DEPT
10-123 1/2 MAIN ST W
MONTRÉAL QC H3Z 2Y7
| JOHN JONES
1425 JAMES ST
PO BOX 4001 STN A
VICTORIA BC V8X 3X4 | JOHN JONES
2765 7TH CONCESSION
SITE 6 COMP 10
RR 8 STN MAIN
MILLARVILLE AB T0L 1K0 | JOHN JONES
GD STN MAIN
WALKERTON ON N0G 2V0 |
* Definitives:
Queen Elizabeth II definitive stamp (Canada)* 2005:
Acadian Deportation 1755-2005,
Polio Vaccination 1955-2005* 2000:
Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer 1925-2000 |
Ritual of the Calling of the Engineer |
*The Canada Post vehicle fleet consists of over 6000 cars and delivery trucks.
*20 000 letter carriers travel more then 165,000 km each workday.
*In 1957 - Canadian scientist, Doctor Maurice Levy invents the
automatic postal sorter, which could handle 200,000 letters per hour (which was more then all the mail delivered in Ottawa). It was first installed at Langevin Building in Ottawa.
Labour troubles
Canada Post has a history of troubled
labour relations with its
trade unions, particularly the
Canadian Union of Postal Workers and the Letter Carrier's Union of Canada (which merged with CUPW in
1989) culminating in periodic
strike action which has brought mail service in Canada to a halt. There have been at least 19 strikes and walkouts between 1965 and 2005 including several
wildcat strikes. A number of these strikes have seen the corporation employ
strike breakers and most, since the 1970s, have resulted in back-to-work legislation being passed by the
Canadian parliament.
Canada Post was also the setting for one of the most controversial labour rulings of recent years. After several prosecutions for theft at Mississauga's Gateway Postal Plant, the union won a ruling from a
labour board that the workers involved could not be dismissed as the length of the investigation exceeded the ten-day limit in the collective agreement under which any allegation of misconduct had to be brought to the attention of the worker. Although the ruling was reversed on appeal, the
Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that although the decision may have been incorrect, it was not so totally without merit that the labour board's decision should be overturned. The court noted the language was in the collective agreement to keep supervisors from holding infractions over the head of a worker indefinitely.
*
Canadian subnational postal abbreviations*
Canada Post Website*
Canadian Postal Archives - History site run by the Government of Canada
*
Library and Archives Canada - Various links to history of Canada Post websites (Run by the Government of Canada)
