Canada Post has begun construction of a new parcel processing centre in Scarborough, Ontario that will be fully operational in early 2023.

The new, 585,000 square foot site will be able to process around 60,000 parcels per hour, around 50% greater than the current site near Toronto it will replace.

Canada Post’s CAD $470 million (£296.6m) site is being built to meet projected capacity requirements as e-commerce in Canada booms, with the postal operator expecting e-commerce parcel volumes to grow by 50% in the next eight years.

The postal operator has designed the new site to be fully carbon neutral, a first for Canada Post as it leads by example in the parcel delivery market by reducing its overall carbon emissions.

Many postal and parcel delivery operators globally were caught out by the pandemic boom in e-commerce volumes, and a large number ended up with overcapacity in manpower and infrastructure as the spike receded. It remains to be seen whether Canada Post has made a similar mistake.