From the Montreal Economic Institute

• Canada Post has accumulated $3.8 billion in losses since 2018.
• The Crown corporation is receiving a $1-billion taxpayer loan to stay afloat in 2025-2026.
• Privatization should include an employee share ownership plan.

Privatizing Canada Post and opening up the sector to competition would result in better services and lower prices for Canadians, shows a new publication released by the MEI.

“Canadians are held hostage by a postal system that is inefficient, strike-prone, and, increasingly, financially non-viable,” says Vincent Geloso, senior economist at the MEI and co-author of the report. “We should follow the lead of European countries like Germany that have liberalized and privatized their postal services, with excellent results.”

Canada Post has a federal monopoly on regular letter mail, making it the only entity legally permitted to deliver non-express letters.

The Crown corporation has run deficits for seven straight years, accumulating over $3.6 billion in losses over the past decade.

Meanwhile, letter volume in Canada has fallen from 5.5 billion letters in 2006 to 2 billion in 2024, a 64 per cent decline.

Canada Post’s market share in parcel delivery has also cratered, falling from 62 per cent in 2019 to 24 per cent in 2024, as private competitors have captured more of the growing market.

In December 2024, more than 55,000 Canada Post workers went on a 32-day strike that ground mail and parcel delivery to a halt causing a backlog of nearly 10 million packages, impacting individuals and businesses alike. The strike reportedly cost small businesses an estimated $1.6 billion.

This past May, another union issued a strike notice and began a nationwide overtime ban, again obstructing delivery volumes. Currently, Canada Post employees are voting on the corporation’s latest offer; if the vote fails, there are fears that another strike would ensue.

“There is an inherent problem with monopolies,” explains Mr. Geloso. “No competition means no incentive to be efficient or innovate, which means higher prices by way of increased costs, and consumers are left with no alternative.”

In 1989, Germany decided to open up its market to a limited amount of competition, and by 2008, the sector was fully liberalized.

Privatization of Deutsche Post started in 2000, and currently, the government holds only a small minority stake in the former monopoly.

Today, over 15,000 firms offer some sort of postal service in Germany. The country’s mail service generally outperforms those of other European countries.

In Canada, the cost of sending a letter is 50 per cent higher today than it was in 1989 (inflation-adjusted).

In Germany, postage prices have fallen by 10 per cent over the same period (after accounting for inflation).

The MEI recommends the following steps to kickstart a two-year process of privatizing Canada Post:

• Offer employees shares: This would give workers a stake in the company’s success and help prevent insiders from taking advantage during the transition (i.e., avoid asset-stripping).
• Avoid regulatory capture: A swift reform process would reduce the risk of special interest groups lobbying regulators to lock in unfair advantages in the law.

“Canada Post’s inability to adapt to the changing market shows that it won’t get better on its own; it needs a massive overhaul,” says Mr. Geloso. “Canadians are paying a lot for a second-rate service; Germany showed us how we can turn this around.”

The MEI Economic Note is available here.

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The MEI is an independent public policy think tank with offices in Montreal, Ottawa, and Calgary. Through its publications, media appearances, and advisory services to policymakers, the MEI stimulates public policy debate and reforms based on sound economics and entrepreneurship.

By Franco Terrazzano

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation employs more than 250 directors, 450 managers and 780 producers that are paid more than $100,000 per year, according to access-to-information records obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

“The CBC’s own records show it has a bloated bureaucracy full of highly paid managers and bureaucrats,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “Canadians need tax relief not a bunch of managers managing managers at the CBC.”

The CTF obtained a 65-page list of CBC employees that are paid more than $100,000 per year. Some of the positions include:

• Manager = 180 employees
• Senior manager = 277 employees
• Director = 124 employees
• Senior director = 106 employees
• Executive director = 28 employees
• Producer = 493 employees
• Technical producer = 36 employees
• Senior producer = 168 employees
• Executive producer = 86 employees

The CBC also employed 130 advisors, 81 analysts, 120 hosts, 80 project leads, 30 lead architects, 25 supervisors, among other positions, that were paid more than $100,000 last year, according to the access-to-information records. The CBC redacted the roles for more than 200 employees.

The number of employees collecting six-figure salaries has ballooned at the state broadcaster, according to separate access-to-information records obtained by the CTF.

In 2024-25, 1,831 CBC employees took a six-figure salary. Those salaries cost taxpayers about $240 million, for an average salary of $131,060 for those employees.

In 2015-16, 438 CBC employees took home six-figure salaries, for a total cost to taxpayers of about $60 million.

The number of CBC staffers with a six-figure salary increased 17 per cent over the last year and has increased by 318 per cent since 2015.

“The records prove the CBC has fat to cut and if Prime Minister Mark Carney is serious about saving money, he needs to force CBC to cut its bureaucratic bloat,” Terrazzano said. “Or better yet, Carney should defund the CBC.”

CBC spending on pay raises has also significantly increased.

After cancelling its taxpayer-funded bonuses, CBC handed out record high pay raises of $37.7 million in 2024-25.

This recent round of pay raises cost significantly more than raises in previous years. For context, the CBC handed out $11.5 million in raises in 2023-24.

The higher pay raises more than offset the elimination of the bonuses, which the CBC cancelled following massive public backlash across the political spectrum.

“The Board of Directors, with the advice and concurrence of the President and CEO, has decided to discontinue individual performance pay,” the CBC announced on May 14, 2025. “In order to keep overall compensation at the current median level, salaries of those affected will be adjusted to reflect the elimination of individual performance pay.”

The CBC will cost taxpayers more than $1.4 billion this year, according to the Main Estimates.

The Carney government is requiring Crown corporations, including CBC, to propose savings of up to 15 per cent of their spending. CBC is required to find up to $198 million in annual savings in three years, according to media reports.

“Taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for an office full of middle managers pretending to be reporters,” said Kris Sims, CTF Alberta Director and longtime former member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery. “The government should stop giving taxpayers’ money to the CBC and force the broadcaster to raise money on its own merits from willing donors and subscribers.”