'It keeps you up at night': Effects of postal strike linger into 2025, business owners say

The Canada Post strike ended last month, but the disruption continues to harm businesses at the start of the new year.

On Friday, more than a week after Christmas morning, North Vancouver-based Mommypow.ca told CTV News that orders intended to be presents have yet to be delivered as Canada Post works through its backlog.

“(Customers) know that this obviously wasn't our doing and out of our control,” said Anne Smithers, the co-founder of Mommypow.ca.

“As a small business owner, it's still really tough to take. It keeps you up at night. You never want any of your customers to be unhappy. “

Smithers went on to say that sales dropped about 20 per cent in December compared to the prior years, and now they are working to find creative ways to get their products to customers, including hand-delivering them, as they can't rely on the Crown corporation.

Smithers credits her small team for navigating the postal strike after years of uncertainty brought on by the pandemic.

“You dust yourself off, and you got to keep moving,” said Smithers. “We're hopeful that the strike coming to an end, we can clear out our backlog and focus on selling and getting product to our customers quickly.”

According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, last month's strike cost an estimated $1 billion dollars in damages to small businesses nationwide.

CFIB found that two-thirds of small businesses are planning to reduce their dependence on Canada Post due to service disruptions.

In December, the Canada Industrial Relations Board determined that negotiations between Canada Post and the union representing employees were failing and ordered workers back under their existing contracts until May.

Simon Fraser University economics professor emeritus Lindsay Meredith warns that the Canadian economy is delicate and that supply chain interruptions will negatively impact small businesses and many Canadians.

“The biggest employers of people are not big business, they are small business,” said Meredith. “If those guys, the little guys, go extinct, watch out for unemployment problems.”

Meredith went on to say that the faster the two sides can come to an agreement, the larger of a favour it will be for the health of small businesses.

In a statement, Canada Post wrote that it continues to stabilize operations and work towards full-service levels.

The statement read that new commercial volumes are being inducted, and pickups are underway.

“We continue to deliver items that were held in our network during the strike while processing new volumes safely and quickly,” wrote Canada Post.

The Crown corporation says delays should be expected for items transported over longer distances into early January. It also expects full-service levels to return during the same timeframe.