There's room for Canada Post in a digital world. That's the message of the storied public postal service's chief executive officer, one difficult year into the job.

Last summer, an impasse in labour negotiations led him to lock out 48,000 workers, resulting in the first Canada Post labour disruption in 16 years. The episode fed the popular perception of Canada Post's decline to irrelevance as it succumbs to forces making traditional mail obsolete.

Greatly exaggerated, counters Deepak Chopra. "There's a wonderful opportunity shaping up," he said, in laying out the makings of a major transformation at Canada Post. "But we have to shape up for it. I can see in the end a viable, healthy, vibrant company. To get there, we have to go through some adjustments. It's a race against time."

He envisions a model in which digital offerings complement physical delivery through Canada Post's vast network spanning the country. "Get ready for this next bull run," he said. "It's called e-commerce."

The first run, lasting the last 40 years, was driven by the prevalence of delivered monthly bills and statements.

But the flow of traditional mail is not what it once was. Volumes have declined by about 15 per cent over the last five years. Financials reflect those pressures. Earnings before taxes declined 27 per cent in 2010 from the year prior.

Expect more of the same over a painful transition period, Chopra warned. The upcoming release of 2011 financial data will bring the company's pension problem into full focus. A $3.2-billion pension deficit was the key issue forcing the summer's lockout. Changing the company's cost structure is a prerequisite for survival, Chopra said.

A viable vision for the company's future will win over Canada Post employees, he believes. "They've been saying, 'For what?' For this."

Central to the growth strategy is to become a leader in home delivery for e-commerce. About 4.5 per cent of retail sales in Canada are conducted online. "That's going to double at some point. And double again," he said.

Canada Post's retail presence in Canada, with 6,500 outlets, is unmatched - and unmatchable, Chopra said. "If somebody was to try to build the network today, what we have, it's impossible. It's not commercially viable."

The second pillar to the transformation is to build Canada Post's digital presence, he said.

For too long, the company has been leery of cannibalizing its own trade in bills and statements by promoting a corresponding Internet service, although it did offer just such a product called epost, an online bill presentment and payment service. "We've had it for 10 years. But we didn't want to tell anybody about it. It's our best-kept secret," he said, explaining that approach must change.

Digital services should be employed in support of Canada Post's products, he said. Evidence of the merits of that approach are seen in the success of Canada Post's app, which has become the country's most popular free application on iTunes, with more than 330,000 downloads. More than nine million packages have been tracked through the app.

Finally, Canada Post will vigorously defend its core offerings, Chopra said, laying out a defence of physical mail. "Paper has some great qualities," he said. It provides an instantly retrievable, lasting record, a system people don't want to part with entirely."