Canada Post could be headed toward a strike on July 2. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers' collective agreement expired on January 31 and the Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers' collective agreement expired in December. They have been in talks with Canada Post ever since but have yet to reach a new collective agreement after nearly seven months of meetings. Their last labour disruption was in 2011, and it lasted three weeks.

Consumers and business owners alike will be inconvenienced by a Canada Post strike or labour disruption. While the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) guarantees delivery of pension and social assistance cheques with up to two days of delivery each month, no other mail pick-up or delivery will happen.

If you have rent, bills, property taxes or anything else due in early July, I'd suggest sending it out now or investigating email money transfers, electronic bill pay or other methods of sending money. If you shop online, you'll also want to make sure you patronize retailers that use a variety of courier services rather than ones that rely exclusively on Canada Post. And if you're renewing a passport, you may want to pay the extra fee to pick it up in person so it doesn't languish undelivered.

While the number of letters delivered in Canada has dropped each year since 2008, the number of parcels being delivered is up overall and continues to rise. Canada Post's profits have been uneven as well -- they were profitable in 2015 (with $136 million in pretax profit) and 2014 (with $269 million), but they lost $37 million in 2013 and $253 million in 2011.