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The paper, the first phase of the Liberals’ Canada Post review, is expected to be publicly released this week, but details have been obtained in advance by the Ottawa Citizen.

Canada Post faces huge changes. Its costs are growing faster than its revenues. The options looked at by the task force are only that — options, not recommendations — but they are meant to provide possible ways forward by cutting costs, boosting revenues and improving the quality of services.

The Citizen has learned task force will say that Canada Post’s business model should be completely re-thought to recognize the rapid-fire pace of technological change and how it has changed the way Canadians use postal services.

The paper, however, suggests that any measures will only buy the service time. That’s because they won’t generate the revenues to cover the costs of its operations once it resumes making payments to its pension plan, which currently faces a solvency deficit of $8.1 billion.

The options were assessed by three main factors — how well they fit with Canada Post operations; the market and possible competitors; and revenue potential. The task force focused on seven options specifically that it believes could generate as much as $762 million in savings or revenues.

The postal service is not an easy entity to reform. It is hamstrung by the Canadian Postal Service Charter, which requires so-called last-mile delivery to all Canadians, regardless of where they live, five days week. It is also hemmed in by the Rural Moratorium imposed by the Chretien government in 1994 that was meant to stop further closures of rural post offices, as well as by collective agreements with its unions.