Canadian Postal Service Charter
The Canadian Postal Service Charter ensures that postal services remain universal, affordable, reliable, convenient, secure and responsive to Canada Post’s customers.
Our compliance to the Charter for 2020 is presented in blue italics after each clause.
Preamble
The Canada Post Corporation was created to provide a standard of service that meets the needs of the people of Canada. The Government of Canada is committed to ensuring transparency in how Canada Post provides quality postal services to all Canadians, rural and urban, individuals and businesses, in a secure and financially self-sustaining manner.
The Government has therefore established the Canadian Postal Service Charter to describe its expectations regarding Canada Post’s service standards and related activities in providing postal services that meet the needs of consumers of postal services in Canada. These expectations are not intended to modify or derogate from Canada Post’s obligations as set out in the Canada Post Corporation Act or any other legislation.
Universal service
1. Canada Post will maintain a postal system that allows individuals and businesses in Canada to send and receive mail within Canada and between Canada and elsewhere. Canada Post will provide a service for the collection, transmission and delivery of letters, parcels and publications.
Charter compliance All 16.7 million Canadian residential and business addresses were served, and international inbound and outbound services were offered to 192 countries.
2. The provision of postal services to rural regions of the country is an integral part of Canada Post’s universal service.
Charter compliance More than 7,900 rural and suburban delivery routes served approximately 5.1 million addresses. Of the approximately 6,000 postal outlets located across Canada, more than half were in rural areas.
Affordable rates
3. Canada Post will charge uniform postage rates for letters of similar size and weight, so that letters to Canadian addresses will require the same postage, regardless of the distance to reach the recipient.
Charter compliance The Corporation charged a uniform rate for letters of similar size and weight, regardless of distance.
4. As required by the Canada Post Corporation Act, Canada Post will charge postage rates that are fair and reasonable and, together with other revenues, are sufficient to cover the costs incurred in its operations.
Charter compliance On January 13, 2020, Canada Post’s basic postage rate increased to $0.92 (up from $0.90), while the price of a single stamp increased to $1.07 (up from $1.05), allowing it to continue to meet its universal service commitment to offer an accessible, affordable and cost-effective postal service for all Canadians no matter where they live, and to operate on a self-sustaining financial basis.
5. Canada Post will provide advance notice of and publicly advertise proposed pricing changes for regulated letter mail products and consult with consumers during the rate-setting process.
Charter compliance The regulated postage rate increase that came into effect on January 13, 2020, was published in the Canada Gazette on June 15, 2019, allowing Canadians to comment on Canada Post’s proposed pricing changes.
Frequent and reliable delivery
6. Canada Post will deliver letters, parcels and publications five days a week (except for statutory holidays) to every Canadian address, except in remote areas where less frequent service may be necessary due to limited access to the community.
Charter compliance Letter carriers and rural and suburban mail carriers provided scheduled five-day-a-week delivery to 99.9 per cent of the addresses they serve.
7. Canada Post will deliver to every address in Canada. This may be delivery to the door, a community mailbox, group mailbox, a rural mailbox, a postal box, general delivery at the post office or delivery to a central point in apartment/office buildings.
Charter compliance Canada Post delivered to every address in Canada. A breakdown of delivery methods is in the chart in paragraph 19.
8. Canada Post will deliver letter mail:
- Within a community within two business days;
- Within a province within three business days; and
- Between provinces within four business days.
Charter compliance Overall on-time service performance for Domestic Lettermail delivery in 2020 was 91.0 per cent, a significant decrease from 2019. Canada Post put safety first during COVID-19, which resulted in processing and delivery delays for customers.
Convenient access to postal services
9. Canada Post will provide an extensive network for accessing postal services that includes retail postal outlets, stamp shops and street letterboxes, as well as access to information and customer service through Canada Post’s website and call centres.
Charter compliance In addition to approximately 6,000 full-service postal outlets and thousands of places to buy stamps, Canada Post offered 24/7 access to canadapost.ca for online services, such as tracking a package, registering a change of address and purchasing postage.
Canada Post also provided approximately 975,000 collection points where postal items could be deposited. This included approximately 703,000 rural mailboxes, 229,000 community mailboxes, 24,000 street letterboxes and 13,000 parcel lockers, along with our postal outlets and other locations.
Canada Post also provided approximately 975,000 collection points where postal items could be deposited. This included approximately 703,000 rural mailboxes, 229,000 community mailboxes, 24,000 street letterboxes and 13,000 parcel lockers, along with our postal outlets and other locations.
10. Canada Post will provide retail postal outlets, including both corporate post offices and private dealer-operated outlets which are conveniently located and operated, so that:
- 98 per cent of consumers will have a postal outlet within 15 km;
- 88 per cent of consumers will have a postal outlet within 5 km; and
- 78 per cent of consumers will have a postal outlet within 2.5 km.
Charter compliance In 2020, 98.7 per cent of Canadians lived within 15 km of a postal outlet, 90.5 per cent within 5 km, and 78.8 per cent within 2.5 km.
11. The moratorium on the closure of rural post offices is maintained. Situations affecting Canada Post personnel (e.g., retirement, illness, death, etc.) or Canada Post infrastructure (e.g., fire or termination of lease, etc.) may, nevertheless, affect the ongoing operation of a post office.
Charter compliance In 2020, personnel or infrastructure issues affected 164 post offices covered by the moratorium. In 104 cases, retail services to the community were maintained through staffing of vacancies and in eight cases retail services were provided in a neighbouring community. Remaining cases are undergoing staffing actions or being reviewed through further community consultation. In all cases, delivery services for the community were maintained without disruption.
Secure delivery
12. Canada Post will take into consideration the security and privacy of the mail in every aspect of mail collection, transmission and delivery.
Charter compliance The Security and Investigation Services group conducts its operations in accordance with the Canada Post Corporation Act and other regulatory and legislative authorities. Canada Post Corporation is subject to the Privacy Act.
Community outreach and consultation
13. Where Canada Post plans to change delivery methods, Canada Post will communicate, either in person or in writing, with affected customers and communities at least one month in advance to explain decisions and explore options that address customer concerns.
Charter compliance In all instances, Canada Post provided advance notice and extensive consultation with affected households before implementing any changes.
14. At least one month before deciding to permanently close, move or amalgamate corporate post offices, Canada Post will meet with affected customers and communities to jointly explore options and find practical solutions that address customer concerns.
Charter compliance In 2020, six urban corporate post offices came under review. Affected customers and communities were notified and consulted at least one month in advance of any proposed change.
15. Each year, Canada Post will hold an Annual Public Meeting open to the public to provide an opportunity for the public to express views, ask questions and provide feedback to Canada Post.
Charter compliance Canada Post held its Annual Public Meeting on September 10, 2020. In previous years, this event was held in cities across Canada, but in the interest of safety during COVID-19, the 2020 event was held by live webcast only.
Responding to complaints
16. Canada Post will establish and promulgate complaint resolution processes that are easily accessible to customers and will address complaints in a fair, respectful and timely manner.
Charter compliance In 2020, Customer Service answered 3.7 million customer calls, and responded to over 2.3 million customer inquiries created through online channels such as web, chat and email. In addition, 4 million conversations were handled by Canada Post’s new Virtual Assistant, which was launched in 2020.
17. The Canada Post Ombudsman will investigate complaints about compliance with the Canadian Postal Service Charter in situations where customers remain unsatisfied after they have exhausted Canada Post’s complaint resolution processes.
Charter compliance The Ombudsman is the final appeal authority in complaints resolution at Canada Post. More information can be found on the Office of the Ombudsman’s website at canadapost.ca/ombudsman.
Reporting on performance
18. Each year in its Annual Report, Canada Post will report on its performance against each of the expectations in this Canadian Postal Service Charter.
19. In addition, Canada Post will present in its Annual Report an overview of the delivery methods it uses, indicating the number of addresses served with each delivery method and the financial costs associated with each method of delivery.
| Delivery method |
Number of addresses* |
% of total addresses |
Average annual cost per address |
|---|---|---|---|
| Door to door | 4,200,974 | 25% | $284 |
| Centralized point (e.g. apt. lobby lockbox) | 4,536,825 | 27% | $142 |
| Group mailbox, community mailbox, kiosk | 5,612,579 | 34% | $160 |
| Delivery facility (postal box, general delivery) | 1,696,953 | 10% | $56 |
| Rural mailbox | 702,610 | 4% | $272 |
| All methods | 16,749,941 | 100% | $181 |
| Delivery method | Door to door | Centralized point (e.g. apt. lobby lockbox) | Group mailbox, community mailbox, kiosk | Delivery facility (postal box, general delivery) | Rural mailbox | All methods | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of addresses* |
4,200,974 | 4,536,825 | 5,612,579 | 1,696,953 | 702,610 | 16,749,941 | |
| % of total addresses |
25% | 27% | 34% | 10% | 4% | 100% | |
| Average annual cost per address |
$284 | $142 | $160 | $56 | $272 | $181 |
* As at December 31, 2020
Reviewing the Charter
20. The Government will review the Canadian Postal Service Charter every five years after its adoption to assess the need to adapt the Charter to changing requirements.
Charter compliance In 2018, the Government of Canada affirmed that Canada Post is expected to continue to meet the expectations laid out in the Charter.