Mailing a Letter? Costs to Rise by 25% Starting Monday
Starting Monday, mailing a letter will cost Canadians more.
The price of stamps purchased in booklets, coils, or panes will rise by 25 cents, reaching $1.24 per stamp. Individually purchased stamps will see a price increase from $1.15 to $1.44.
Canada Post, the Crown corporation responsible for postal services, says this one-time increase—approximately 25%—is necessary to offset the rising costs of delivering letter mail across Canada.
The increase is expected to have a modest financial impact on households, adding an average of $2.26 to annual mailing expenses. For small businesses, the average yearly increase is projected to be $42.17. Overall, Canada Post anticipates the new rates will generate an additional $80 million in revenue in 2025.
“Every year, we deliver fewer letters, but we have to deliver them to more addresses, which puts significant pressure on the company’s costs,” Canada Post stated.
According to internal data, letter mail volumes have plummeted by 60% over the past two decades, declining from 5.5 billion letters in 2006 to just 2.2 billion in 2023. Despite this decline, the number of addresses serviced has grown by more than three million. In 2023, Canada Post employees served 17.4 million addresses nationwide.
This growing operational burden has contributed to substantial financial losses. Over the past six years, Canada Post has recorded $3 billion in pre-tax losses, including a $748 million loss in 2023.
The rate hike was first announced last September, following a series of challenges for the postal service. Last year, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers staged a strike involving 55,000 members, lasting from mid-November to mid-December. The strike ended after the government issued a back-to-work order, citing a negotiation impasse.
On Monday, a two-day hearing will begin before the Canada Industrial Relations Board to determine the constitutionality of the government’s back-to-work legislation. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers argues that the order violates their charter rights.