The corporation employs 16,000 people eligible to retire in the next five years, with 14,000 more eligible for retirement in the five years after. In total, that’s more than half of the 55,000 workers represented by CUPW.

More than half of postal workers are due to retire over the next decade. Canada Post could shrink its workforce by half without laying anyone off, just by instituting hiring freezes.

In the mean time it could scale back general mail services (don’t need daily door to door delivery) and focus on parcels and offer special services for seniors, people with disabilities, and other folks with special needs. Only 1/3 of 15 million Canadian households receive door to door delivery anyway. Those folks can walk a few minutes down the street to a community mailbox just like the other 2/3 of Canadians have been doing for decades now. Leave the expensive services to those who actually request them based on need.

At the same time, Canada Post needs to be able to set its own postage rates rather than having them set by law. I believe this was changed in a recent bill but I’m not sure on the status of this. Postage rates that actually reflect the cost of delivery would encourage more businesses to switch away from sending unnecessary mail, such as paper bills and statements to customers who have already tried to opt out of them (yes, this happens).