As negotiations continue between the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) and the Canada Post, the corporation revealed its operating loss for 2024 was nearly $1.3 billion.

“Outdated operating, regulatory and policy constraints are limiting our ability to adapt to the changing needs of the country. At the same time, letter mail continues to decline and competition has rapidly intensified in e-commerce delivery,” which has pushed it to “a crisis point,”

according to the report

.

Canada Post called its financial situation “unsustainable” and said the future of the national postal system was at risk.

The 2024 annual report was released on Wednesday, the same day Canada Post presented

“final offers” to CUPW’s bargaining units

, Urban Postal Operation and the Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers. The two parties have been negotiating since before last November, when

Canada Post employees went on strike for 32 days

. They were ordered back to work by the Canada Industrial Relations Board at the request of then minister of labour Steven MacKinnon. The collective agreements for both units were then extended to May 22.

Canada Post, union disagree over taking ‘five-minute wash-up time.’ Here’s what it is

With little progress made in talks with the Crown Corporation since December, the union gave notice of a strike with a May 23 deadline. However, rather than a full-on strike, the union decided to implement

a nationwide overtime ban

, calling on its members to refuse to work more than eight hours a day or forty hours a week.

After receiving strike notice on May 19, Canada Post said it “recorded

more than $3 billion in losses before tax

” since 2018. In early 2025, the government announced repayable funding of up to $1.034 billion for Canada Post to prevent insolvency.

This week, Canada Post’s annual report showed it was at an $841 million loss before tax. The corporation indicated that the November 2024 strike, which lasted until Dec. 17, had a major impact and “contributed $208 million to the company’s loss,” with revenue falling “much more” than costs during that period.

Parcels revenue declined by $683 million “due to the strike and intense competition” in 2024, according to Canada Post. There were 56 million fewer pieces in 2024 compared to the previous year, it said.

“Many customers who turned to other carriers for their shipments (during last year’s strike) have not yet returned to Canada Post – and that’s expected to have a financial impact well into 2025 and beyond,” said Canada Post in a news release on Wednesday.

The company also said it has been impacted by the decline in letter mail, which has been steadily trending downward for 20 years. In 2006, Canada Post delivered 5.5 billion letters. Last year, it delivered two billion. The delivery costs are rising as the amount of new addresses increases, making it “unsustainable” to continue delivering fewer letters to more addresses. The corporation said its focus will shift to parcel delivery, as e-commerce continues to grow.

However, this pivot is in direct conflict with the collective agreements it has with CUPW, which “contain pages and pages of requirements and restrictions that were added decades ago” when Canada Post was “focused on delivering a large and steady stream of mail,” it said.

The corporation clarified: “It’s our outdated delivery model and workplace rules – not our employees – that hold us back.”

The union’s national president Jan Simpson reacted to the annual report in

a news release

later on Wednesday. She said that the Canada Post’s report left out “many important details that don’t support its own message.”

She said the report doesn’t address its “failure to raise stamp rates before 2025, even though every other major postal operator raised rates significantly between 2018-2023.” It also doesn’t include how much of the losses since 2018 resulted from costs related to the COVID pandemic, she said.

The union maintains that the “best way to right the Corporation’s finances is by negotiating ratifiable collective agreements that will help grow parcel volumes, expand services and secure Canada Post’s position as the important public service provider that it is.”

The union said in a separate

news release on Wednesday

that it had received Canada Post’s latest offers.

“There are almost no changes from what the Employer

put forward on May 21

,” when the corporation presented offers after receiving strike notice, the union said.

The union called out the corporation for refusing to budge on contentious issues, such as part-time staffing and weekend delivery, as well as load-levelling (spreading out the processing and delivery of mail) and dynamic routing (optimizing delivery routes).

“These have been the most challenging issues on the table this round, and now, Canada Post insists that they must be in the next collective agreements,” per the union.

The latest offers did not provide improvements on the current wage proposal — a cumulative increase of nearly 14 per cent over four years — or include changes to the short-term disability program “that would have helped both parties,” the union said.

CUPW concluded: “Canada Post says this was its final offer. But this fight is far from over.”

While negotiations continue, the overtime ban remains in effect.

• Canada Post, union disagree over taking ‘five-minute wash-up time.’ Here’s what it is
• Is Canada Post on strike right now? Here’s the latest on union negotiations

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Lebanon’s Kfar Kila was badly thumped during an Israeli offensive against Hezbollah, and further reduced to rubble by construction contractors engaged by Israel to largely wipe it from the Earth; it is now essentially a few roads with intermittent piles of rocks and vague outlines of what used to be houses.

Herzberg said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) found what were essentially “fake homes” there, filled with missiles and soldiers’ rations and uniforms. It was the same story in settlements all along the Lebanese border, including in Christian towns that were essentially occupied by Hezbollah.

The destruction done to southern Lebanon by the IDF’s assault on Hezbollah last fall is devastatingly clear, but Herzberg wants a group of visiting Canadian journalists to understand the Israeli message: the war was not with Lebanon but with the terror group that had effectively colonized Kfar Kila and much of southern Lebanon.

“We have no issue with the Lebanese people. We have issues with Hezbollah. They are our enemy,” he said.

The Montreal-born Herzberg has the unique seriousness of purpose of an Israeli soldier proud of the Jewish state army’s capacity for killing its enemies. He looks like an accountant who runs marathons but speaks with the swagger of a warrior, sometimes against his country’s own leadership. The army was embarrassed by October 7, and is determined not to be caught flat-footed again.

“This is the strongest we’ve ever been,” he said.

Today, he is a tour guide but he is also an IDF reservist, which means he’s spent most of the past 18 months on active duty; he had spent the previous day in a nearby corner of Syria and was to return there the following day.

Israel learned quickly from its inattention early on October 7, taking no chances in the north; two hours after Hamas invaded the south, the army sent troops to the north to counter any threat from the better-armed Hezbollah. Israel has since spent the last 19 months ensuring it is defanged.

Herzberg said Hamas are bunch of pikers who got lucky — he calls them “a junior varsity team” while Hezbollah is “a professional sports team.” But by hesitating when Hamas acted, Hezbollah lost the opportunity to seize an advantage. They sent their first rockets into northern Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, sparking a back-and-forth and a full-scale Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon. 

But Hezbollah is now 80 per cent routed, pushed back via a November ceasefire to the other side of the Litani River, some 27 kilometres from the Israel border, and seemingly unable to mount a threat anymore. Its leadership is decimated, its military capacity largely neutered.

“They’re not defeated, but they’re crushed,” said Herzberg.

Israel is still mopping up as it moves freely in southern Lebanon, though many of the 60,000 Israelis who had been evacuated from the north for more than a year have finally returned. Still, this can feel like an active war zone; a plume of smoke went up from the Lebanese side while we were there. 

Our tour was sponsored and organized by the Exigent Foundation, founded by Toronto entrepreneur Larry Maher to advocate for the Israeli perspective. In northern Israel, it took us to a Druze Arab town and a Muslim Bedouin village, as well as an Israeli kibbutz.

“This is an Israeli village. Pro-Israel,” said a Bedouin leader in Arab al-Aramshe, where more than a dozen people were injured in a Hezbollah attack on a community centre in April 2024. 

The first rocket hit the centre’s glass roof, the second hit a car; a drone arrived 30 minutes later, the timing intended to inflict maximum damage on first responders. The Bedouin spokesman asked to remain anonymous as we stood below what was the glass roof, debris and pockmarks and twisted metal all around.

The Israelis we spoke to said the Lebanese government, such as it is, is thrilled with what Israel has done to take that country’s south back from Hezbollah, even if it’s not saying so publicly. It wasn’t clear if the Israeli government had intelligence to that effect, or if it was merely an assumption, given that the recently elected reformist president of Lebanon has been freeing the government of Hezbollah’s influence. But Herzberg and others talked about a future with a Lebanese government they could do business with, once Hezbollah is fully out of the picture.

“Lebanon is a kidnapped country, it’s like a beaten spouse,” Herzberg said.

Just metres from the Lebanon border, i
n Kibbutz Hanita — established by Zionists a decade before modern Israel was born — we meet Yaki Shalom, head of the community’s security team, who tells us they grow bananas and avocados here. Standing in the community’s outdoor amphitheatre, he tells us there were three Hezbollah attempts to infiltrate Hanita last fall, all pushed back by the IDF. And then there were the constant rocket attacks.

We stand in the rubble of a house hit by a Hezbollah rocket, and then head to a nearby machine gun post on the concrete border fence. Shells from automatic weapons still litter the post.

Hanita was abandoned for months, but Shalom said 60 per cent of the population has come back, led by teenagers who wanted to return to their school and friends. But families with younger children have not come back; the kindergarten is still closed.

I
srael’s war with Hezbollah has taken a toll on Hanita and much of northern Israel. Still, these Jewish, Druze and Bedouin places stand, damaged but determined, as towns like Kila on the other side of the border do not. 

“We are here. (Hezbollah) are not here. So I guess they made a mistake,” said Shalom. 

• Remains of Israeli soldier missing since 1982 recovered in Syria
• Man arrested at Walk with Israel for ‘yelling anti-semitic slurs’: Toronto police

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Canadian swimmer Summer McIntosh has announced plans to move to Austin, Texas to train with Bob Bowman, former coach for Olympic superstar Michael Phelps, CBC reports.

His coaching expertise and experience with multi-event swimmers

will help her achieve her own ambitious goals, most notably to win five individual gold medals at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, she told CBC Sports.

McIntosh

won three Olympic gold medals

, as well as a silver, at the 2024 Paris Games.

Where will she train with Bowman?

She

plans to move to Austin

after the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in July to join Bowman’s professional training group, regarded as one of the best in the world and including other top swimmers.

McIntosh says she values the

individualized and intense training approach

Bowman offers, which she feels aligns with her needs as a high-performance athlete competing in multiple events.

Where is she training now?

Before her move, McIntosh will

continue training under French Olympic coach

Fred Vergnoux, who has helped her develop a strong aerobic foundation and competitive mindset.

Why Bowman?

Bowman guided Phelps to a record 23 Olympic gold medals and has also

coached other elite swimmers

such as Regan Smith, and Simone Manuel and Léon Marchand, who won four gold medals in Paris. All of them have achieved world-class results under his guidance.

Bowman specializes in preparing swimmers who compete in multiple events, managing complex training regimens that balance volume, intensity, and recovery. This can be valuable for athletes aiming to win several medals during a single Games.

He is known for tailoring his training plans to each athlete’s specific needs, strengths and goals.

What is so special about Bowman’s training?

Bowman emphasizes building trust and understanding with his athletes, supporting not just their physical development but also their mental resilience — an essential factor for Olympic success.

Bowman

breaks down big goals into daily, weekly, monthly and yearly plans

with clearly defined outcomes. He encourages athletes to write down their targets and visualize success, believing that vivid mental rehearsal is a powerful tool for achieving goals.

Rather than fixating on medals or external results, Bowman teaches athletes to concentrate on perfecting their performance and hitting personal benchmarks. This

reduces pressure and helps maintain consistency

under stress. He teaches athletes to focus on their own race and performance, not on competitors or outcomes, to

avoid choking under Olympic-level pressure

.

He emphasizes the importance of

daily routines and habits

, believing that champions produce predictable performances even in unpredictable environments.

Bowman uses

mental imagery extensively

, asking swimmers to visualize every detail of their races — the feel of the water, the sounds, and the execution of each stroke — to prepare for high-pressure situations.

He deliberately introduces challenges and discomfort in training, so athletes learn to perform when things go wrong — like Phelps did when he won a race in Beijing, even though his goggles had filled with water.

What will the benefit be of training at the University of Texas in Austin?

Training in

Bowman’s professional group

will means daily exposure to some of the world’s best swimmers.

His

program at the University of Texas

is designed to foster excellence, utilizing the best resources, facilities and staff to help athletes reach their full potential.

• Simmons: Summer McIntosh isn’t just a Canadian legend, she’s now an all-time Olympic great
• Second gold medal sets Summer McIntosh on her way to Canadian Olympic greatness

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

OTTAWA — A group of Indigenous leaders are calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney to showcase the game-changing potential of Canadian liquified natural gas (LNG) at the upcoming G7 leaders’ summit in Kananaskis, Alta.

“(W)e would ask (you) to have a clear and positive message about the global energy security and emissions reduction role of LNG at the (summit) and in the communique to follow,”

reads an open letter

to Carney signed by the heads of five pro-development Indigenous organizations, all based in Western Canada.

The letter stressed that building out Canada’s LNG export capacity will be critical to raising living standards in Indigenous communities.

“For our Nations, (LNG) represents freedom from boil-water advisories and from the energy poverty experienced in many of our communities,” read the letter.

Indigenous Resource Network head John Desjarlais, who helped write the letter, says it reflects a growing desire among Indigenous Canadians to be involved with major projects that will shape their future.

“(I)ndigenous people are starting to stand up and say we are very interested in advancing reconciliation and self-determination through economic development. And involvement in resource development is one of the greatest drivers of facilitating that self-determination,” said Desjarlais.

The letter also said that the mid-June summit will give Carney a “crucial” opportunity to reverse predecessor Justin Trudeau’s pessimistic tone on Canadian LNG exports.

“(W)e look to you to strike a balance with your peers that better integrates shared goals around energy security, economic growth and environmental protection,” reads the letter.

Trudeau was widely criticized in 2022 when he said there

wasn’t a “business case”

for shipping Canadian LNG to Western Europe, despite the urging

from fellow G7 leader

Olaf Scholz that Canada play a “major role” in Germany’s efforts to break its dependence on Russian natural gas.

Canada failed to substantially grow its LNG exports under Trudeau,

while exports took off

in peer nations like Australia and the United States.

The letter added that time is of the essence as several of Canada’s allies,

including G7 partner Japan

, will be finishing up long-term energy contracts with Russia in the coming years.

“As a result, they are seeking new LNG opportunities now, and Canada is perfectly positioned to be that partner,” reads the letter.

A recent study

by the Fraser Institute

found that doubling Canadian LNG production and exporting the surplus to Asia could reduce global carbon emissions by up to 630 million tonnes, equivalent to 89 per cent of Canada’s total emissions.

Desjarlais said that the Trudeau government’s “paternalism” toward Indigenous Canadians was a major stumbling block stopping it from building effective resource partnerships with Indigenous groups.

“The spirit and intent was there, but there was also a sort of risk aversion when it came to trusting that Indigenous people can effectively co-develop resources,” said Desjarlais.

Karen Restoule, the director of Indigenous affairs at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, says she applauds the letter’s authors for forcing the issue.

“At a time when Canada has been, for the last decade, led by a leader and party who have (played) ideological games with little to no recognition as to what the economic impacts would be on the country… I am incredibly grateful to (this group) for taking the initiative to restore Canada’s economic footing, for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians alike,” said Restoule.

“This is what leadership looks like.”

Carney said in an interview this week that “virtually every” major resource project he backs as prime minister will have “an Indigenous component.”

National Post

rmohamed@postmedia.com

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Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

Within hours of Canada’s sovereignty being made abundantly clear by its King in a historic and symbolic speech from the throne in the nation’s capital, U.S. President Donald Trump once again made a pitch for Canada to become the 51st state.

In a post to Truth Social, he said the cost to join in the “fabulous Golden Dome System” — the multilayered missile defence program to counter foreign threats to America, even those coming from space — would be US$61 billion should Canada choose to remain “a separate, but unequal, Nation.”

But join the U.S. as its “cherished 51st state” and protection from the defence program will cost Canada “zero dollars.”

“They are considering the offer,” Trump wrote.

( @realDonaldTrump – Truth Social Post )
( Donald J. Trump – May 27, 2025, 5:41 PM ET )

I told Canada, which very much wants to be part of our fabulous Golden Dome System, that it will cost $61 Billion Dollars if they remain a separate, but unequal, Nation, but will cost ZERO… pic.twitter.com/iKSSYkRVzz

— Donald J. Trump 🇺🇸 TRUTH POSTS (@TruthTrumpPosts) May 27, 2025

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office didn’t say whether it received such an offer when contacted by National Post, but said discussions on NORAD and the Golden Dome have been part of “wide-ranging and constructive discussions” Carney and his ministers have had with U.S. counterparts.

But while acting on his citizen-driven mandate to establish a new relationship with the U.S., his office said, “the Prime Minister has been clear at every opportunity, including in his conversations with President Trump, that Canada is an independent, sovereign nation, and it will remain one.”

National Post has contacted the White House press secretary and is awaiting a response.

The president first announced the

Golden Dome initiative in the Oval Office last week

, remarking during his address and in questioning from reporters that “Canada wants to be part of it” and will “pay their fair share.”

“We are dealing with them on pricing,” he said.

In a statement to the Canadian Press at the time, a spokesperson for the prime minister confirmed talks on the Golden Dome, but didn’t share costs or specifics.

The project has already been awarded its first $25 billion with the passage of Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” — legislation that covers reforms in several sectors, including defence.

Carney has made multiple commitments on defence spending, the most recent being in Tuesday’s throne speech, which confirmed Canada would join ReArm Europe, the

European Commissions’s plan

to give member nations more “financial flexibility” to mobilize a combined 800 billion euros (CAD$1.25 trillion) for a “massive ramp-up of defence spending.”

Carney later told

CBC

he hopes to finalize that deal by July 1.

“Seventy-five cents of every dollar of capital spending for defence goes to the United States. That’s not smart,” he said.

As part of a pledge that Canada would hit NATO’s defence spending target of two per cent of gross GDP by 2030, the Liberals’ election platform included $130 billion in new defence spending over the next four years.

Canada’s position as one of just eight member nations that aren’t hitting the mark has been a bone of contention from

multiple U.S. administrations

, not just Trump’s.

When the pair had their first face-to-face at the White House in early May, Trump remarked that “Canada is stepping up the military participation.”

• ‘It’s done’: Trump’s 51st state comments are ‘behind us,’ says U.S. ambassador to Canada
• What is the Golden Dome and does Canada want to be part of it like Trump says?

On the heels of that meeting, Pete Hoekstra, the new U.S. Ambassador to Canada, told

National Post

that both his and Trump’s standpoint, “51st state’s not coming back.”

“The president may bring it up every once in a while, but he recognizes it’s not going to happen unless the prime minister engages with the president,” he added.

Last week, Hoekstra told the

Hill Times

that while he appreciates Canadians’ concerns about Trump’s continued rhetoric, he’s not going to be distracted by it.

“I’m moving forward. The president sent that message clearly when he was with the prime minister. Now we’re waiting to see how Canada responds,” he said regarding the request for a proposal on how it wants to proceed on future trade agreements.

Hoekstra said he was “not very sympathetic” to Canadians feeling slighted, suggesting the U.S. is “hurt, too,” citing Canada’s lengthy NATO spending shortfall.

“International diplomacy is tough. The world is a tough place. Getting prosperity, security, and safety for people, which are the top priorities of the president, that’s hard,” he said. “So, no, I’m not very sympathetic.”

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