Firehall Arts Centre sounds off on how Canada Post's neighbourhood mail strike is hurting local arts organizations
Theatre company spent over $13,000 on nearly 30,000 brochures that can no longer be delivered to Vancouver neighbourhoods, shares artistic producer Donna Spencer
Vacant Lot, the Firehall Arts Centre’s first show of the 2025-26 season. Photo by Carlo Alcos
Donna Spencer, artistic producer of the Firehall Arts Centre. Photo by Pedro Meza
SMALL BUSINESSES AREN’T THE only ones affected by Canada Post’s latest strike action, as the Crown corporation has ceased delivery of all unaddressed neighbourhood mail—including flyers and brochures—until further notice. The Firehall Arts Centre says it’s among the local arts organizations that will be negatively impacted.
The ban, which came into effect on September 15, is a result of the ongoing labour dispute between Canada Post and its employees, represented by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. It replaces the union’s last strike action, an overtime ban that had been in place since May 23. Negotiations have been ongoing for nearly two years. Jan Simpson, national president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, said in a statement on September 12, “We’ve been left with no choice but to change our strike activity with the hope that Canada Post finally takes us seriously and returns to the bargaining table.”
The Firehall just finished designing and printing nearly 30,000 brochures advertising its 2025-26 season, at a cost of over $13,000. But the brochures can no longer be delivered—and the funds spent cannot be recouped.
“I was shocked,” the Firehall’s artistic producer Donna Spencer tells Stir of hearing the strike news. “And then I went, ‘Well, this can’t be happening.’ And then I went, ‘Well, surely they’ll start to talk right away.’ But it doesn’t sound like that’s happening. We felt we needed to say something because it’s going to really hurt our organization—but it’s also hurting restaurants and small businesses. It’s affecting the economy, and right now, we don’t need that.”
The Firehall’s brochures would have been delivered to households in neighbourhoods where the company already has patrons, including Kitsilano, Olympic Village, Mount Pleasant, Strathcona, and along Commercial Drive. Spencer says last year’s campaign in those areas helped expand the Firehall’s audience considerably for the 2024-25 season. Though the longtime artistic producer says the Firehall team looked into whether there was another flyer-delivery service that could accomplish distribution on a similar scale as Canada Post, they weren’t able to find one. Many Vancouver arts organizations use flyers as a traditional method of local engagement, as an affordable way to reach specific neighbourhoods near the venue or event versus a wider-distribution channel that is not as targeted.
“I have to say, I didn’t think that this action would be taken given that it had such an impact on every business last year when they were on strike prior to Christmas,” Spencer says. “I mean, we had a Christmas flyer for our show Reflections on Crooked Walking that was all ready to go at the mailhouse, and then they went on strike. So this year when we decided to do our brochure that way, even though they were talking, I was feeling that they would not make that choice because it had such an impact on everybody’s business.”
In response to the union’s announcement, Canada Post released its own statement: “We are disappointed in CUPW’s decision to ban the delivery of Neighbourhood Mail, which we first learned about through their news conference,” it reads. “This decision impacts the thousands of Canadian businesses that reach their customers with information and offers through the mail.”
The Firehall now has to consider what it describes as “more costly and less effective ways” to spread the word about the upcoming season, which includes advertising in newspapers or online. But paying for additional campaigns on top of the undistributed brochures could push the company into a budget deficit.
Ultimately, Spencer remains positive that the union will resolve the dispute in some capacity within the next 10 days. That would mean the Firehall’s brochure would still be current and could be distributed; it will go out of date after that point, as it contains information about signing up for classes that begin at the end of September and purchasing ticket passes for the 2025-26 season, which launches from October 22 to 25 with Hiromoto Ida’s dance-theatre production Vacant Lot.
“What I hope is that somebody [who works for Canada Post] will hear and go, ‘You know, they’re right. Those businesses are hurting—and if they’re hurting, it’ll end up hurting us as postal workers, because there won’t be work for us,’” Spencer says. “So it’s kind of thinking about what we all need to do for a community to make a community healthy.” 
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