Canada Post has an important responsibility to continue serving Canadians during this difficult time, when they need us most. Our primary goal remains to protect our people and our customers while ensuring the continuation of our postal system, on which we all depend.

The situation surrounding COVID‑19 is new to all of us, and our teams are working hard to respond to rapidly changing circumstances with everyone’s health and safety foremost in our mind. Many decisions have been made across our network, from plants and depots to our delivery operations and retail postal outlets serving customers. We know that changes are necessary in the exceptional circumstances that we are currently facing on a national and global level. They include:

• All delivered items are left at the receiving address, reducing post office customer traffic and avoiding interaction with customers at the door (Knock, Drop and Go approach)
• Signature items are being transferred to our retail post offices, where the social distancing guidelines below are paramount to limit personal contact as much as possible
• Social distancing guidelines: many decisions have been made across our network to reduce congestion and facilitate a proper social distance, such as:
  • Providing clear barriers for our retail counters to increase safety
  • Installing protective shields in depot mail pick-up and drop-off areas
  • Supplying floor decals placed 2 m apart from the door to the retail counters
  • Limiting the number of customers in smaller offices
  • Encouraging customers to pay electronically instead of using cash
  • Increasing signage to encourage customers and employees to diligently follow social distancing practices and the prevention recommendations from health authorities
  • Staggering shift start times
  • Increasing the spacing of employees at sortation cases and delivery carts
  • Changing break times to reduce congestion in shared spaces
  • Providing Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) like masks and nitrile gloves
  • Designating the first opening hour at post offices for the elderly and those whose health is compromised
  • Suspending the 15-day holding period for parcels, allowing customers to delay their visit
  • Making special cleaning arrangements to deep clean work areas and vehicles
  • Keeping all surfaces clean and disinfected, having cleaning crews more frequently disinfecting “high-touch” surfaces such as touchpoints on doors, light switches, cafeteria areas, stairway rails, elevator buttons, etc.
  • Reducing post office hours, opening one hour later and closing one hour earlier to give staff extra time to sanitize the outlet

We continue to follow the guidance of the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) when it comes to creating new safety measures in our plants, depots, post offices as well as in our communities, and we are in continual contact with our unions. These measures help to enable Canada Post to maintain its vital delivery services and address its legal and social obligations to protect both our employees and customers during the COVID‑19 pandemic. We want to be fully transparent with all of our valued customers.

We have been sharing detailed information regularly with the public on our website, www.canadapost.ca. At the top of the home page there is a banner directing users to Canada Post’s COVID-19 public updates page including an FAQ section.

As the situation changes, Canada Post will also regularly update the Delivery Service Alert page with updated information on delays and suspensions as they occur.

To learn more about which destinations are impacted, please visit www.canadapost.ca/cpc/en/our-company/news-and-media/service-alerts.page.