The news
Canada Post will begin moving its first Toronto addresses from door-to-door mail delivery to community mailboxes on Nov 16. The first conversions cover Etobicoke's M9V and M9W postal codes.
The details
Most parcels will still be delivered to residents’ community mailboxes, rather than requiring a trip to the post office. More than 80% of Canada Post’s parcels fit in either an address’s own mailbox compartment or a dedicated parcel compartment.
Parcels that are too large or require a signature will still go to the door or be held for pickup at a nearby post office.
Residents will receive their new mailbox location and keys before the switch.
Seniors and people with disabilities can also request accommodations, including weekly delivery to their doors. More than 18,000 households already receive these accommodations.
Etobicoke is the first part of a five-year conversion schedule for the Toronto area. Of the city's 151 postal codes, 130 are scheduled for conversion in 2028 or later. Canada Post is prioritizing urban neighbourhoods based partly on their proximity to areas that already use community mailboxes.
Winnipeg and Sept-Îles, Quebec, were the first communities to begin receiving mail through the new system in October.
Parts of North York, east-end Toronto and downtown Toronto are among the last areas scheduled to switch, in September 2031.
Each conversion takes 14 to 16 months from start to finish, according to Canada Post's annual report.
The conversions are part of a broader cost-cutting plan following Canada Post's largest loss on record. The federal government expects the shift to community mailboxes to save close to C$400 million annually.
Canada Post also plans to reduce staffing costs through natural attrition as it restructures. It expects about 16,000 employees to leave through attrition by 2030, followed by another 14,000 between 2031 and 2035.
The company still plans to hire thousands of workers, including for weekend delivery.
Members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, which represents about 55,000 Canada Post employees, ratified five-year contracts running through Jan. 31, 2029.
About 60% of the union’s board supported the agreement as a way to protect job security, although the union's president urged members to reject it.
Worth noting
Toronto has a much larger share of door-to-door mail delivery than the rest of Canada. About 541,000 of the city’s 1.2 million residential addresses still receive mail at the door, or roughly 45%, compared with about a quarter nationally.
Those Toronto addresses account for roughly one in seven of the 4 million Canadian addresses still awaiting conversion. City staff are reviewing proposed community mailbox locations for accessibility, snow clearing, bus stops and parking.
What’s next
Parts of Ajax, Pickering, Mississauga and Brampton are next in the Greater Toronto Area, with conversions scheduled between September and November 2027. Nationally, Canada Post has identified about 686,000 addresses across 55 communities for conversion by the end of 2027.
(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
