Large majority of the public opposes postal deregulation

The results of a new Ipsos Reid poll that CUPW commissioned show that 69 per cent of the public oppose allowing private companies to deliver letters in Canada. This poll sends a strong message to politicians that the public will not tolerate any attempts to deregulate or privatize Canada Post.

CUPW has included these polling results in its submission to the Canada Post Strategic Review panel, which is considering postal deregulation. The deadline for submissions to the Canada Post Corporation Strategic Review was September 2. The union hopes the review panel will remember these results when making their recommendations about our public post office.

 

What kind of results did we get?

The poll shows that:

• 46 per cent of people strongly oppose allowing private companies to deliver letters in Canada,
• 23 per cent of people somewhat oppose allowing private companies to deliver letters in Canada,
• 9 per cent of people strongly support allowing private sector competition, and
• 18 per cent of people somewhat support allowing private sector competition.

This means 69 per cent of the public is against postal deregulation and just 27 per cent of people support postal deregulation.

The results become even more astounding with a second question asked to those who favoured deregulation. Forty-four per cent of these people said they would change their minds and oppose postal deregulation if Canada Post could not keep its current one-price-goes-anywhere service for the price of a stamp.

There is no significant difference in the results between urban and rural residents or in any particular region.

 

What questions did the poll ask?

Question # 1: Currently, by law, only Canada Post is allowed to deliver letter mail in Canada. A number of private companies have said that they would also like to deliver letter mail in Canada. Canada Post offers letter mail service for the price of a stamp, regardless of the origin or destination of mail within Canada. In the case that private companies were allowed to offer a competing letter mail service in Canada, pricing decisions would be left up to those companies. Do you strongly support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose, or strongly oppose allowing private companies to deliver letter mail in Canada?

Question # 2: If you knew that allowing private companies to offer a competing letter mail service in Canada would make it impossible for Canada Post to keep its current one-price-goes-anywhere service for the price of a stamp, would you then change your mind and oppose letting private companies deliver letter mail in Canada?

 

Has public opinion shifted on postal deregulation?

Angus Reid did polling about postal deregulation with a slightly different question in 1996. In the 1996 poll, 49 per cent of respondents opposed and 48 per cent of respondents supported postal deregulation. The results from this new poll show that public opposition to postal deregulation has increased significantly since 1996.

Having the public on our side will help with our struggles against postal deregulation in the coming months and years. We will build on these results to ensure our post office remains a strong and universal public service. CUPW’s submission to the strategic review is available from your local or on the union’s website.