CUPW Banking on a Future for Canada Post

OTTAWA, Oct. 16, 2013 /CNW/ - An inflatable piggy bank stood 12 feet tall behind Denis Lemelin, National President of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), as he urged Canada Post Corporation to include postal banking services in its future.  

October 16^th is Canada Post's 32nd anniversary as a Crown corporation.  

"We thought Canada Post's anniversary would be a good time to talk about what our public post office needs to do to survive and prosper in the future," said Lemelin. "We postal workers understand Canada Post's challenges, and have been advocating service expansion for many years. Our union has recently worked with the corporation on the same-day merchandise delivery trial project in Toronto. We are hoping the corporation will now work with us to add lucrative postal banking services."  

Last week the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives released a new feasibility study that gives postal banking a green light for Canada. The CCPA urges action: "The federal government and Canada Post should immediately proceed to a new stage of setting up a task force to decide how to deliver new financial services and what new products to deliver first," concludes the report. The study examined postal banking in other parts of the world, and looked at the plight of the unbanked or under-served population.  It found that Canada Post is positioned well to address some of the unmet need for financial services.

Lemelin said that, in today's economic environment, countries like Switzerland and France have added financial and banking services to their national postal services, which have generated revenues to help balance their budgets and save the public service in these locations.  

"Cutting is not the answer," says Lemelin. "We're counting on Canada Post to find its future, and we think just maybe this big inflatable snout can help point the way. Postal workers want the same thing that a majority of the public wants - a self-sustaining public postal service that will be there for the long haul."

SOURCE: Canadian Union of Postal Workers