As a strike looms at Canada Post, Canadians are making other plans to pay their bills and send time sensitive documents.

If an agreement between the union and Canada Post can’t be reached; job action could begin July 2.

Bill Rennie is trying to get his medical receipts to Ottawa and he’s not pleased he can’t use Canada Post.

“It was a request from Revenue Canada and you follow those requests,” says Rennie. “I would've preferred to send it Canada Post to be honest with you. I think this is not the time for Canada Post to be going on strike.”

All the strike talk means business is up at Digital Stop, a shipping business that has worked through previous postal strikes.

 “We get a lot of panicked people coming in,” says Deborah Piazza. “They need things to go from point A to point B and they want it there and want a guarantee of course.”

Canada Post is not optimistic the two sides can resolve their differences and avoid job action.

 “If there is a large scale strike by the union, the postal system would have to shutdown,” says John Hamilton with Canada Post. “If that happens, no mail or parcels are being accepted or delivered and everything in the system stays there until we are in a position to deliver that.”  

It says if you need something delivered try to get it in the mail by Wednesday.

Many organizations that rely on the mail are also making contingency plans by encouraging electronic billing and payment and relying on couriers.

Courier companies like Fedex and Purolator say their shipments are up because of the strike talk and have plans in place to deal with it.