Stamps purchased in booklet, coil or sheet will cost 25 per cent more

Canada Post is raising the cost of stamps and its other mail products by 25 per cent today, a move announced in September, well before a 30-day labour strike further challenged the organization’s already dire financial situation.

Experts say the price increase will be both risky and ineffective.

The Crown corporation says that stamps purchased in a booklet, coil or sheet — which make up the majority of stamp sales — will now cost $1.24 each, up from $0.99. Such price increases receive legislative approval in advance.

Canada Post expects that the new rates will bring in approximately $80 million additional annual gross revenue in 2025.

The price hike is a “somewhat dangerous road for Canada Post to go too far down the line of competing one-to-one with the other providers out there because, fundamentally, they won’t be able to do so as profitably as others,” said Sherena Hussain, an instructor at York University’s Schulich School of Business.

A future version of Canada Post might be taxpayer-subsidized, he added, with service primarily in rural and remote communities — areas not serviced by the private, for-profit couriers that tend to focus on Canada’s major metropolitan areas.

Lee said that there could also be a scenario in which Canada Post delivers directly to independently owned franchises that exist in grocery stores and pharmacies, rather than delivering directly to home addresses.

“Loblaws and Shoppers [Drug Mart] and corner stores will just be competing aggressively to obtain those franchises because they’ll have guaranteed customers coming in the door,” he said.

source cbc #canadapost