Canada Post strike costs Canadian small businesses $76 million per day - $1 billion total by Wednesday

Toronto, December 2, 2024 – The Canada Post strike, now two weeks in, has cost the small- and medium-sized business sector at least $765 million or $76.6 million each business day. At this rate, if the strike is not immediately resolved, it will have cost the sector over $1 billion as of Wednesday, warns the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).
 
“It’s not Grinch who is about to steal Christmas. It’s Ottawa sitting idly on the sidelines while small businesses are losing crucial revenue and sales due to circumstances outside of their control. The Labour Minister recently said mediation talks have been suspended because the two parties remain too far apart to reach a deal and that a long labour conflict is a possibility, but he is the one who has the power to put an end to this mess,” said Corinne Pohlmann, Executive Vice-President of Advocacy at CFIB.

The strike has negatively impacted three quarters of small businesses. Among those, 41% reported cost impacts totaling $2,000 in lost orders, more expensive delivery alternatives, late payments and the inability to promote their business at a crucial time of year. Overall, 69% of small business owners want the government to introduce back-to-work legislation.

Here’s what some small businesses across the country have told CFIB about the impact the strike is causing them:

• A bookkeeping service business in Alberta has funds stuck at the post office as the shop’s receivables are all sent via mail from insurance companies.
• For a consulting firm in Ontario, there is no shipping alternative without giving big discounts for clients, forcing the company to pay for all the extra shipping costs. 
• A seed supplier in Prince Edward Island, that has been dependent on Canada Post for 86 years, has over 270,000 catalogues that cannot be mailed via a bulk service. Rather than looking forward to increased revenue, it’s now facing substantial storage fees for the large volume of printed materials and says orders for Christmas will be low.

CFIB is urging Ottawa to immediately intervene and impose binding arbitration or introduce back-to-work legislation to salvage some of the critical holiday shopping season. 

“Small firms have already missed the most important sales weekend of the year, with Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. If the strike isn’t settled this week, Canada Post will not be a player for the entire holiday season given the backlog it will have to sort through before taking on new business,” Pohlmann added.

For media enquiries or interviews, please contact: 
Dariya Baiguzhiyeva, CFIB 
647-464-2814 
Public.affairs@cfib.ca 

Methodology
Preliminary results for the Flash Survey: Impact of Canada Post strike and GST/HST exemption. The online survey is active since November 26, 2024, number of respondents = 3,813. For comparison purposes, a probability sample with the same number of respondents would have a margin of error of at most +/- 1.6%, 19 times out of 20.

About CFIB
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) is Canada’s largest association of small and medium-sized businesses with 97,000 members across every industry and region. CFIB is dedicated to increasing business owners’ chances of success by driving policy change at all levels of government, providing expert advice and tools, and negotiating exclusive savings. Learn more at cfib.ca.