While parcel delivery is booming, representatives at Canada Post say they will struggle to meet a government-mandated goal of self-sustainability in coming years due to an ongoing decline in letter mail and higher employee costs.

In a corporate forecast quietly tabled in Parliament, the Crown corporation says it is expecting to achieve “modest” profits of between $10-million and $125-million from 2019 through to 2023.

But it says those will be driven primarily by its Purolator subsidiary, while the base Canada Post segment will post losses.

Canada Post has a five-year plan that estimates it will need to invest $3.6 billion to keep up with the growth of e-commerce shipping while modernizing to meet shipper and customer expectations and stay ahead of competitors.

The Zoomers group CARP – A New Vision of Aging – has been an advocate for maintaining door to door mail delivery, since many older Canadians continue to send mail and are challenged by wintry conditions in getting to community mailboxes.