'It's crunch time': Businesses opting to hand deliver orders amid Canada Post strike

Even if the Canada Post strike were to end today, it wouldn’t be enough to salvage the holiday season for local businesses, according to the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce.

After four weeks of striking, Canada’s labour minister is now asking a federal board to review the state of he negotiations. This could pave the way to a back-to-work order and end the strike as early as next week.

But it may be too little too late for some Winnipeg businesses that have had to take matters into their own hands… literally.

“Within the city, we have recently offered the ability to hand deliver (orders) by ourselves,” said Eric Hetherington, one of the owners of the Bear Face General Store on Osborne.

Bear Face is among several businesses that have decided to deliver orders themselves, with Christmas less than two weeks away.

“Our business goes crazy in December,” Hetherington said.

Rumor’s Comedy Club is doing the same thing.

“We're just trying to go that extra mile to help out our customers and say, ‘Hey, I know we're all concerned about this labour stoppage. We'll come to you,’” said Drew Mindell, the club’s sales and marketing manager.

“That's a cost that we're happy to bear, just to help out our customers, especially right now around the holiday season.”

He said starting Friday and running until Monday, staff at Rumor's will be delivering orders for gift cards and season tickets. Those orders, he said, will be delivered by Thursday.

“It's crunch time for the holiday season, so people are looking to fill out those last little gifts, whatever they might be, and the fact that we're willing to deliver it to them – it's just one thing that they can check off their list nice and easily,” Mindell said.

The Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce said several businesses have been finding alternatives to Canada Post – be it courier services or delivering parcels themselves.

“To not have this period of time where you're able to ship your goods to customers, that could be the difference between businesses keeping their doors open or not,” said chamber president and CEO Loren Remillard.

While Remillard said it’s welcome news that Canada Post employees could be heading back to work as early as next week, but it is a bit too little too late.

“If the strike ended today, that would be welcome, but I don't think it's enough to save Christmas, if you will, for the vast majority of businesses,” he said.

Remillard questioned what the post-holiday impacts of this strike will be, as he said many businesses that have found alternatives may not want to return to Canada Post.

“This disruption has fundamentally altered that relationship between business and Canada Post,” he said.