Still no deal between Canada Post and its striking staff

Negotiations between Canada Post and the union for postal workers are still on hold as of Monday afternoon, though both sides have said they're working to get back to the table.

Canada Post said it's waiting for the union to respond after it offered its new model for negotiations over the weekend. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has said it made some "adjustments" to the corporation's suggestion "in hopes that he will restart the mediation process."

"As of now the mediator has not informed us of a restart, but the union is ready," a statement read.

On Sunday, the corporation said the plan included proposals to bring greater flexibility to Canada Post's delivery model and shows "movement on other key issues" in the labour dispute.

The government had appointed a mediator to help the two sides reach an agreement, but that mediator put discussions on hold last week after finding the parties were too far apart on key issues to find a deal.

In a post on X Sunday, Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon said he had spoken with both sides, reminding them "that it is their duty and responsibility to resolve differences in a dispute that is impacting so many Canadians." 

He said mediation will only resume "once the special mediator has clear evidence that both parties have sufficiently modified their respective positions."

Tens of thousands of mail carriers walked off the job on Nov. 15, halting deliveries of letters and packages at the start of the holiday shipping season. With the strike entering its third week, the U.S. Postal Service has now stopped accepting Canada-bound mail for the time being.

Equifax Canada and the Better Business Bureau are also warning Canadians about mail scams.

The former said there has been an "exponential" rise in fraud attempts since the strike started, ranging from phishing emails to deepfake phone calls.

"Any time there is a major political event, a major strike or anything like that, we'll see an uptick," said Octavia Howell, chief information security officer at Equifax Canada.

"Not only is there a Canada Post strike ... it's the holidays."

Scams related to parcels and deliveries typically tick up in step with online shopping orders this time of year, but the work stoppage at Canada Post has led to even more fraud attempts amid the confusion around shipments, Howell said.

Comprehensive figures on the latest batch of scams are not yet available from Equifax Canada, but the credit bureau's daily internal updates have marked the rise nonetheless.