Canadians will no longer have “snail mail” slithering into their home door slots and mailboxes, the government announced this week, prompting postal employees to make the promise an instant reality by walking off the job in protest.

The general strike by Canada Post employees began just hours after the federal government announced an overhaul to the country’s mail delivery system. It instructed the financially struggling Crown corporation to end home delivery nationwide and wipe out some rural mail routes.

Canada Post hemorrhaged nearly $450 million in the first half of 2025, according to a report from CBC News. The losses are blamed primarily on a steep decline in the amount of physical mail as residents turn increasingly to online alternatives.

While postal service officials welcomed the new edict, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers was “outraged” at the decision, saying that if the government wants its members to stop delivering mail to people’s homes, that is exactly what they will do.

“In response to the Government’s attack on our postal service and workers, effective immediately, all CUPW members at Canada Post are on a nation-wide strike,” a statement from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers reads.

The CUPW, which represents 55,000 postal employees, says it was blindsided by the sudden policy shift, accusing both Canada Post and federal officials of deliberately sabotaging their own service. 

Union leaders argue the changes are systematically destroying the demand for letter and parcel delivery in what amounts to a self-fulfilling prophecy of decline.

The Canada Post employees already were working without a collective agreement after nearly two years of grueling contract negotiations and a monthlong strike late last year. 

As talks drag on over fundamental issues like fair wages and the treatment of part-time employees, the postal service has been hemorrhaging money, sustaining financial losses that threaten the future of the entire operation.

Three-quarters of Canadians have already been pushed onto a community mailbox system, a government official told the CBC on Thursday. Now the remaining customers face the same fate in a move that officials promise will slash $400 million annually from the corporation’s overstretched budget.

The officials promise to preserve the corporation’s delivery accommodation program, which allows people with mobility challenges to secure weekly home delivery and provides other accessibility arrangements.