Recently, the USPS announced that it was suspending mail delivery to Canada. Unfortunately, this news is not widely known yet. This article aims to provide deeper insights into the current situation, address your questions, and suggest recommended actions to help you assess the potential impact on your organization.
What is happening?
On November 15, 2024, the Unionized Canadian Postal Workers went on strike. According to various news articles from Canadian sources, the Canada Post (office) will not process or deliver mail and parcels during the strike.
What does this mean to U.S. consumers and businesses that send mail to Canada?
The USPS announced on November 29 that it would temporarily suspend international mail delivery to Canada until further notice (effectively until the end of the Canadian Post strike).
Due to the Canadian Post strike, Canadian mail is not arriving in the U.S. either.
What we don’t know
What happened to mail sent to Canada in the days leading up to the strike?
- Was it delivered?
- Is it being held by Canada?
- Is it being held by the USPS?
- Did it get returned to your office?
- Has the non-delivery of documents or payments from Canada resulted in late fees or penalties to your institution?
What happened to mail sent by anyone in Canada to any place in the U.S. on the days leading up to the strike?
- Is it held by Canada?
- Was it returned to the sender?
- Has the non-delivery of documents or payments to Canada resulted in late fees, breach of contract issues, or penalties to your institution?
When will the Canadian Post strike end?
- As of December 6, the Canadian Post strike is entering its fourth week. According to Canadian news, “Federal mediation of the strike was put on hold last week due to the sides being too far apart.”
Questions for your consideration as you examine the potential impact on your organization (likely not an all-inclusive list)
- Have you recently mailed important documents or payments (checks) to Canada leading up to and during the strike?
- Can you pull your pay files (vendor, student, healthcare, etc.) and identify how many mailings may have been impacted by the strike?
- Do you have any outstanding checks sent to Canada that you believe should have cleared by now?
- Can you place a temporary hold on all outgoing Canadian mailings until the matter is resolved?
- Or ….will the USPS hold that mail for you until ready for delivery? Are you comfortable with that?
- Can you (should you?) place a temporary hold on check printing for Canadian addresses?
- Could this strike lead to an increased number of checks being reported lost or stolen, resulting in the possible need for your business to place stop payments and reissue checks?
Offices in your institution to notify and recommended next steps
Accounts Receivable: Payments or documents from Canadian entities and consumer may be delayed, especially if they were mailed around the time the strike started.
Accounts Payable and Procurement/Purchasing Offices: From previous experience, I know some Canadian-based contracts carry significant fines and penalties if agreed-upon payments do not arrive timely.
*Put a plan together to migrate Canadian check recipients to electronic payment methods so that this issue can be avoided in the future.
Mail Services (internal to your organization): Can they help your institution identify and stop Canadian mail from leaving your business until the strike is settled? Will your Mail Services office hold the mail for you or return it to the originating office?
Accounting, Treasury, and Account Reconciliation Offices: Expect delays in check clearings. Expect an increase in the number of stop payments, or missing check reports, especially if there are mailings (checks) currently trapped (and presumed missing) in limbo at either the Canadian Post or the USPS. Disruptions in normal processes introduce risk. Hopefully, this won’t happen but now is the time to prepare your plan.
That said, it would be prudent to anticipate an increase in the number of check fraud attempts in your organization, as well. Ensure your Positive Pay and Payee Positive Pay solutions, in addition to your ACH debit blocks and filters, are fully deployed. Implement management-level reviews of all requests to place stop payments and/or reissue checks related to Canadian recipients.
Bursar Offices, Medical business offices, or other areas that typically send and receive payments to Canada: Are you obligated by law or legal agreement to make payments, reimbursements, refunds, etc. within a certain amount of time? Could the Canadian Post strike compromise your ability to meet these requirements?
Contact us if you have and payment-related questions or want to learn more about Payment Assessments.
