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The disruption in postal and shipping services caused by a Canada Post strike is coming at a time when many businesses in Saskatchewan are preparing for — or already in the middle of — the holiday shopping season.

Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce CEO Jason Aebig said retail businesses will likely feel the largest impact.

Since 55,000 workers at the Crown corporation responsible for ferrying mail went on strike Friday over wages and working conditions, businesses have been frantically searching for alternative ways to get orders to customers.

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“Simply because of the outgoing shipping that many of them will rely on through Canada Post, but also the inbound shipments of inventory product,” Aebig said in an interview.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many retail businesses developed greater online presences, a move Aebig said was needed to help many stay open. For some, that may make this disruption in postal service more difficult than in years past.

“It’s very possible that they are doing more business out of province or outside of the city of Saskatoon than they were previously,” he said.

Workers at Canada Post continue to walk picket lines across the country.

In a statement posted on its website, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) said it has been in negotiations for a year with Canada Post and made little progress. The union said going on strike was a last resort and that workers’ demands are straightforward.

“Our demands are reasonable: fair wages, safe working conditions, the right to retire with dignity, and the expansion of services at the public post office,” the union said, adding that it believes a settlement can be reached but the corporation needs to address workers’ concerns and issues.

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Aebig said the disruption in service comes on the heels of labour disruptions at two of the country’s major seaports in Vancouver and Montreal, which also affected many businesses’ ability to move and get goods.

Overall, Aebig said, the full impact of the disruption will not be known “until we get the retail shopping numbers that Stats Can reports on quarterly.”

One of the main points of contention between Canada Post and its unionized workers relates to wages, with the two sides not in agreement on salary increases. Aebig said these inflation-related pressures are not confined to a single sector of the economy.

“Wage inflation is across all sectors: public, private, Crown, non-profit. Every sector has experienced wage inflation,” he said.

Aebig said Canada Post is also likely facing pressure due to increased competition and other costs related to operating a large-scale distribution network.

The country’s small business community collectively says the longer the strike goes on, the more damage it will cause.

“It is a scramble and a little devastating,” said Jessica Duffield, owner of Wishes and Whatchamacallits, an online small business selling pop-culture inspired products.

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“Do you pause your shop and lose all of your momentum or do you try and make it work?”

When the strike began, Wishes and Whatchamacallits had about 40 orders to process. Most of the prints and stickers the company sells would usually be sent through Canada Post, because it is the most affordable shipping option for the business based in Saint John, N.B.

Larger, heavier items such as crewneck sweaters, or more customized work like commissions, however, would typically be shipped out via tracked packages for $8 through Canada Post. Sending the same products through other couriers would cost Duffield more than $20 each.

“This week I had to really scramble to figure out … am I going to be absorbing all these extra costs?” Duffield said.

“I can’t contact customers and cancel orders. That would devastate me over the holidays.”

Because many of the alternatives to Canada Post are more costly or won’t track her packages until they reach Halifax, Duffield is contemplating driving 45 minutes across the U.S. border to Maine to drop some of the orders in a mailbox.

“(For) the rest, I probably will have to eat some of that expense by using a courier,” she said.

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Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said many of the small businesses he has spoken with in recent days have told him Canada Post alternatives are two to three times more expensive than they are with the Crown corporation.

Even those that can afford to opt for other services often find capacity issues.

“It’s not like these private sector delivery companies had just massive amounts of surplus capacity, so that is very much a challenge,” said Kelly, whose organization represents more than 97,000 small businesses in Canada.

Most small businesses don’t have much time to spare.

With Black Friday on Nov. 29 and holiday shopping getting underway, they are desperate for solutions that won’t upend their busiest season, when Kelly estimates some small businesses see up to 40 per cent of their annual sales.

“Canada Post going on strike two weeks before Black Friday devastates small businesses,” said Harley Finkelstein, president of Shopify Inc, the e-commerce software giant favoured by small businesses, in a post on X.

“As the leading Canadian carrier this has massive consequences — small businesses will unfairly bear the brunt.”

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Many are also worn out, after emerging from COVID-19 only to find labour shortages and inflation.

“It’s no surprise to anyone that small firms have been put through the wringer over the last couple of years,” Kelly said.

— With files from Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press

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