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Canada's national mail service is called Canada Post. Founded in 1867, it is the country's primary postal operator. Canada Post operates five days a week, Monday to Friday. Regular parcels and letters are delivered within 2 to 9 business days (Monday to Friday).

Depending on where you live, mail is delivered to a mailbox at your door, or to a community mailbox site. At centrally located community mailbox sites customers are provided with a key to a secure mailbox. These collection points are more common in rural areas.

Letters are addressed:

Mr. John A. Smith (recipient)
Manager, Marketing Department (Title, Floor, etc.) - optional
10-123 Main Street NW (Address line 1 - a hyphen is placed between unit/suite/apartment number and the street number)
Toronto, Ontario M4B 1B4 (City, Province, Postal Code are all on one line)
Canada (Country - only indicated if mailing internationally)

Note that return addresses are indicated in the front, upper left corner of envelopes and packages.

A Canadian postal code is a six-character string that forms part of a postal address in Canada. Codes are alphanumeric, meaning they are in the format A0A 0A0, where A is a letter and 0 is a digit, with a space separating the third and fourth characters.

• NL - A
• NS - B
• PE - C
• NB - E
• QC - G, H, J
• ON - K, L, M, N, P
• MB - R
• SK - S
• AB - T
• BC - V
• NU/NT - X
• YT - Y

To search for a postal code you can use Canada Post's Postal Code Finder.

Post Offices in Toronto

Most post offices are open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday to Friday. There are also numerous postal counters in convenience stores with longer hours.
Locate the nearest post office by visiting the Canada Post website. You can find red Canada post drop boxes throughout the city to drop off mail to be sent.

Postal Services in Toronto

Canada post offers temporary and permanent mail forwarding if you move locations. However, this service is not free of charge, please visit this webpage to determine the price for forwarding your mail to a new address.

If you are going on vacation or have home renovations, or any other instance in which you would like to put a hold on your mail delivery, it is possible to Hold Mail with Canada Post.

The ePost system allows companies to bills, flyers, account statements, pay stubs, or other correspondence to your ePost box. Using ePost you can also connect to online banking services to pay bills.

Money Orders can be purchased in Canadian and US dollars at Post Offices throughout Canada. The maximum amount for Money Orders is $999.99. Money order fees are $6.50 for orders destined for Canada and the United States. Canadian, American, and certain international Money Orders can be cashed at banking facilities and Post Offices in Canada.

In addition, MoneyGram allows you to send funds securely without a bank account or credit card. Fees vary according to country of destination.