Canada Post keeps current mailbox supplier secret amid new procurement rules

Canada Post announced that it will be fitting community mailboxes at about 136,000 sites in the coming months, marking the first phase of a five-year program to move four million addresses off traditional door-to-door service. The agency states the units are supplied by a Canadian company, but it will not disclose the supplier’s identity, invoking commercial-confidentiality rules. Montreal-based P. Riopel Inc., which has built mailboxes since 1957, confirmed it once unsuccessfully bid for the contract, which was then awarded to Treco A/S of Aalestrup, Denmark.

Treco had been reported in 2017 to deliver 7,500 metal mailboxes per year for four years. The federal Buy Canadian Procurement Policy, effective Dec. 16, 2025, is meant to guide Crown corporations, yet Canada Post has not clarified which directive it follows. Economist Vincent Geloso warned that such rules can either block foreign firms or force higher-priced domestic bids, increasing costs. Requests for comment from Public Services and Procurement Canada, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, and other potential suppliers received limited or no response.