Canada Post door-to-door delivery and its role in social infrastructure

Canada Post has approval to end door-to-door delivery for roughly four million addresses, with most conversions phased in over the next three to four years. The article argues that letter carriers form a trusted national human network that can support seniors and reduce isolation, and that this service could be reframed as social infrastructure rather than a conventional business.

Canada Post received approval to end door-to-door delivery for roughly four million remaining addresses, and plans call for most conversions to community, apartment and rural mailboxes to be phased in over the next three to four years. The postal service's chief financial officer has described the organization as effectively insolvent. The article frames Canada Post not only as a mail carrier but as a national human network of trusted workers who visit residences regularly. A recent paper from the National Institute on Aging is cited to show how postal workers' daily presence can help identify changes in routine and support seniors. Key points: - In September, Canada Post was approved to end door-to-door delivery for about four million addresses, with conversions scheduled over three to four years. - The postal service's CFO has been reported as calling the organization "effectively insolvent." - The National Institute on Aging paper notes postal workers are trusted and their visits can help detect changes in residents' routines that may signal need. - Variations of letter carrier alert programs exist in parts of Ontario, and France, Japan and the U.K. have used postal workers for light-touch wellness checks and related services. - Scaling such care-adjacent services faces practical challenges including jurisdictional complexity, labour agreements, training, liability and consent. Summary: The piece highlights a tension between financial pressures and the social role of daily delivery workers, arguing that postal routes represent underused social infrastructure. Plans to convert many addresses to centralized mailboxes are underway over the next three to four years; broader policy decisions about funding, service design and any new roles for carriers remain undetermined at this time.