Charities in B.C. taking hit as Canada Post strike continues
Donations for Giving Tuesday are expected to be lower this year
This year's Giving Tuesday will look very different for B.C. charities, who say the ongoing Canada Post strike has led to significantly fewer donations.
More than 55,000 workers with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers have been off the job since Nov. 15, and their negotiations with the Crown corporation were on hold Monday, while the government called for a swift resolution.
As a result of the strike, which has seen thousands of packages and letters held up, B.C. charities haven't been able to send out their end-of-year brochures — and aren't able to receive cash or cheque donations in the mail.
Angela Chapman, Vancouver General Hospital and University of B.C. Hospital Foundation CEO, said donations to the foundation are down 15 per cent compared with the last two years.
"We're estimating that the impact with the current drop in sales will be about $1 million," she told CBC News.
Chapman said her foundation usually raffles away luxury homes as part of their annual fundraising drive, and will try to make up the shortfall with other means of fundraising. She is encouraging residents to donate online instead.
Nicole Danesi, a spokesperson for online charity tracker CanadaHelps, said Chapman isn't alone in reporting a drop in donations.
"The Canadian Cancer Society, for example, has already experienced about a 60 per cent decrease in offline donations through direct mail, and that amounts to about $2 million," she told CBC News.
"For Canadian charities, the ongoing labour dispute is really like the nightmare before Christmas.
"Many of them are scrambling in order to figure out how they are going to replicate or find other ways of getting donations through the door."
Danesi is encouraging Canadians to try and donate online instead, and said Giving Tuesday — the first Tuesday after U.S. Thanksgiving, when people are encouraged to do good and donate to charitable causes — is usually when the charity tracker sees an uptick of activity.
However, the number of Canadians giving to registered charities has fallen from about 25 per cent in 2010 to 17 per cent in 2021, she said.
"We really want to remind Canadians that charities across the country are providing critical work for individuals in need and also for every single one of us," Danesi added.
Meanwhile, Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon said in an X post on Sunday, that he had spoken with both sides in the ongoing postal strike, reminding them "it is their duty and responsibility to resolve differences in a dispute that is impacting so many Canadians."
With files from Nav Rahi, Michelle Ghoussoub and The Canadian Press