Her Worship Olivia Chow
Mayor, City of Toronto
100 Queen Street W
Toronto, ON M5H 2N2
Dear Mayor Chow:
As President of the Toronto Local of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, I am writing to urge you to publicly oppose the federal government’s decision to eliminate door-to-door delivery by Canada Post in Toronto, and to ask that you use the authority of your office to advocate for the protection of this essential public service. This decision would undermine accessibility, public safety, and the effective use of urban space in Canada’s largest city.
Door-to-door delivery works in Toronto. Compact neighbourhoods and strong volumes of personalized mail, flyers, and parcels make it efficient and well suited to the city’s urban form. Maintaining door-to-door delivery is the right model for a modern, dense and walkable city.
Door-to-door delivery is, in every meaningful sense, a by-Canadians, for-Canadians public service. Toronto is Canada Post’s strongest revenue-generating market. Eliminating door-to-door delivery is a deliberate policy choice to redirect parcel and flyer revenue to private companies while weakening Canada Post as a viable public service. This choice reflects a failure of leadership.
This federal decision goes far beyond letter mail. It would force unwanted community mailboxes into Toronto neighbourhoods, despite longstanding opposition from residents.
Community mailboxes are incompatible with a dense, walkable city like Toronto. They clutter sidewalks, are regularly vandalized, obstruct pedestrian clearways, and create real barriers for seniors, people with disabilities, and residents with mobility challenges. These impacts fall directly on the City and on Torontonians, despite being driven by federal decisions made without community input.
The public safety costs of retreating from a regulated public delivery service are already visible on Toronto streets and will multiply as Canada Post no longer delivers to the door. Multiple unmarked delivery vans crowd the same blocks, routinely park illegally on sidewalks and in bike lanes, and force pedestrians into traffic. When Canada Post steps back, private couriers step in taking work and revenue that should be sustaining a publicly owned service. Once door-to-door delivery is eliminated, it will not return.
Community outreach by the Toronto Local and its allies has shown that once residents understand what is being taken away, opposition is immediate and widespread. I urge you to publicly stand with Toronto residents and Postal Workers, in opposing this decision, and to demand that the federal government halt the elimination of door-to-door delivery in Toronto.
I would welcome the opportunity to host you at a Toronto Letter Carrier Facility, where you could meet Postal Workers and see firsthand the service residents rely on every day. Toronto deserves a delivery system that strengthens public service, protects public space, and puts people before privatization.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
Regards,
Mark Lubinski
President, Toronto Local,
Canadian Union of Postal Workers
[email protected];
office: 416 241 2385