With the current labour action at Canada Post, perhaps it may be a good time for the federal government to ask why Canada Post is in the business of delivering flyers and other mail that is not addressed to the recipient. Is this really an essential service that this public corporation must full that no other company can do?
It may also be time for the government to consider charging user fees to people in high cost service areas to receive mail. The interesting thing will be to determine if those locations are in the rural areas that everyone assumes of if they are in the urban areas that feature home mail delivery. As a rural person, I do not object to the concept of paying a price to receive letter mail as long as the surcharge is reasonable. Heck, with some incentive, I imagine I can encourage all the companies that send me paper bills to shift to electronic bill presentation and payment processing. As it stands, I am down to the last two suppliers who will not accept a credit card payment and if they do not change soon, they will not be my suppliers.
In terms of commercial shipping, our operation is on the edge of travelling to the US twice a week to send out packages. The service offered by the US postal service and the commercial competitors is so much better than what is offered in Canada that it is worth the expense to travel 60 miles to use that option. While there, we most likely will stock up on milk, eggs and other products that are lower priced in the US as well.
