Mail and package delivery have been interrupted from coast to coast at Canada Post since Friday due to a strike, a few days before Black Friday, and more broadly at the start of holiday shopping. On Tuesday, the latest news indicated that the two parties were “very far away” from an agreement.
Local businesses contacted by The Nouvelliste have simply chosen to change carrier, even if it means financially paying the difference. The customer should not turn back once their virtual basket has gone to checkout, when delivery costs are added with taxes.
“It certainly has financial repercussions. It costs double with the other carrier.”
— Marie-Claude Trempe, co-owner of Nothing is lost, everything is created in Saint-Sévère
The workload is also greater, ensuring that packages are delivered on time with other carriers who are suddenly overloaded. Several dozen packages per day can be sent from his business, which offers clothing and accessories from Quebec artisans.
Maintain discounts
The sound of the bell is similar to the clothing company Made by a mother, from Shawinigan, where we took the gamble of still offering a discount on delivery, despite the strike.
“Delivery costs are often something that holds buyers back. When the holiday season comes, sometimes it’s a good strategy to reduce costs to encourage customers to choose us. But it’s a double-edged sword nonetheless. For me, it doesn’t cost me less, it costs me more, but I want customers to turn to us all the same,” says owner Josée Villemure.
Josée Villemure, creator of the company Made by a mother. (Sylvain Mayer/Archives Le Nouvelliste)
She had an agreement with Canada Post which allowed for better rates. She has to go without it for a while and the price difference, multiplied by the number of packages, hurts.
“There, it’s the small business that absorbs all that in the end… It’s boring.”
To find out how many packages are delivered each week by the Shawinigan SME, we answer “300, easy”.
Candles
The Trois-Rivières company Flambette, which offers candles and soaps, already did business with other carriers for the majority of its shipments. However, certain packages that were supposed to go through Canada Post will have to remain on hold until the conflict is resolved.
Co-founder Marie-Michelle Dupuis gives the example of the Îles-de-la-Madeleine.
“It doesn’t make sense, we would lose so much money paying $60 for the package to be delivered.”
— Marie-Michelle Dupuis, co-founder of Flambette
Otherwise, the company has an agreement with a seniors’ residence in Joliette to provide candles to the families of deceased people. Normally, we send several blank candles, and the labels are sent as necessary depending on the death.
“Instead of costing, I don’t know, 60 cents, it would cost us something like $10 to send a label. We don’t yet know how we’re going to go about doing that.”
Organizations too
It is not only SMEs that are affected by the strike. As for the Mauritian Organization Center for Services and Popular Education (COMSEP), we are making a lot of phone calls this week for activities.
There are also the Christmas party invitations, which were supposed to be mailed this week to 1,000 members, so they could register.
Sylvie Tardif, general coordinator of COMSEP. (Amélie St-Yves)
Director Sylvie Tardif sees December 1st arriving, the period when the “Friends of COMSEP” campaign must be launched, which generally goes through the mail and which allows us to accumulate approximately $60,000 in donations per year.
Checks must be dated before December 31 to be eligible for tax deductions.
“Even if we sent our letters on December 15, we wouldn’t have time to raise $60,000,” she says.
Checks
Furthermore, the Government of Quebec has identified around thirty checks that can be collected in person with ID at the Service Québec office in downtown Trois-Rivières, for those who are not registered for direct deposit.
Among these checks, we find in particular income replacement indemnities from the CNESST, checks from the Quebec Pension Plan, and checks linked to social assistance programs.
Distribution of checks at the Services Québec Office in Trois-Rivières. (Amélie St-Yves)
The waiting room was empty when The News writer passed Tuesday.
“No checks will be issued to businesses or non-profit organizations. The checks will be kept until the end of the labor dispute at Canada Post,” it is also specified on the government website.
The federal government, for its part, has agreements with Canada Post for certain checks.
