Canada Post records Q1 loss of $205 million amid major restructuring

Canada Post records Q1 loss of $205 million amid major restructuring

Loss comes amid ongoing labour dispute that Canada Post attributes in part to lower revenue

Canada Post says it recorded a $205-million loss before tax in the first three months of this year as mail volumes fell.

That amounts to a $164-million decline in revenue compared with the same period last year, when the Crown corporation posted a $41-million loss pre-tax. Revenues also fell by $181 million, or 14.3 per cent, in the first quarter year-over-year.

The loss comes amid an ongoing labour dispute with workers that the Crown corporation attributed in part to the downturn in its parcel business.

"This uncertainty for customers continued to weigh on parcels results in the first quarter," Canada Post said in a news release.

The company delivered seven million fewer parcels in the quarter than it did in the same period in 2025 — a 17.2 per cent decline in volume. Revenue from parcels dropped by $79 million as a result.

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A ratification vote on the collective agreement between Canada Post and its workers is currently underway and will wrap up on Saturday.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers, which represents the employees, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CBC News.

Transaction mail revenue fell by 13.7 per cent compared with the same period a year before. But Canada Post said those figures were skewed because the first quarter of 2025 saw unusually high volumes of letter mail due to the federal election and the backlog created by the strike at the end of 2024.

A 13.4 per cent decline in direct marketing revenue was also somewhat skewed by the backlog, which made the first quarter of 2025 particularly strong.

The news comes after the Crown corporation posted its worst loss on record in 2025 — a whopping $1.57 billion in losses last year before tax.

The postal service said the weak numbers emphasize the need for a transition.

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"Canada Post has begun a critical transformation that will strengthen the postal service, better support businesses and enable national commerce, while helping the corporation meet its dual mandate of delivering for all Canadians in a way that is financially self-sustainable," the release said.

Canada Post says the transition will help it move away from relying on government cash injections. As part of the restructuring, it plans to end home delivery to some addresses and expand the use of community mailboxes in order to save money.

Abby Hughes is a writer with CBC News based in Toronto. Originally from Orillia, Ont., she studied journalism at Toronto Metropolitan University. She covers news from the worlds of business, entertainment, health, science and education, and her favourite stories focus on the real people in those areas — the customers, fans, patients, citizens and students. You can reach her with story ideas at abby.hughes@cbc.ca.