CBC - A spokesman for Canada Post said there's still enough time to reach a deal with its postal workers, who are threatening to strike at midnight Thursday.
"There's plenty of time. There's two days left to negotiate," Jon Hamilton, Canada Post's director of communications, told CBC's Power & Politics.
"A lot of the scoring sometimes doesn't happen until the end of the third period. So we're in that third period and we know the pressure's on," Hamilton said.
"We know the people that don't want to strike at all and know how much of an impact that will be on people. We have to get down and we're committed to negotiating."
But Hamilton cautioned that they can't accept an offer from the union that comes with a "billion-dollar price tag and say everything will be fine."
"Because that's going to lead to higher prices or we're going to have to knock on the door of the taxpayer."
The union, which represents close to 50,000 letter carriers and other workers, is asking for a four-year contract with wage increases of 3.3 per cent in the first year and 2.75 in years two and three. The average starting wage for postal workers is $23 an hour.
On Monday, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers tabled a "new and final offer," which included a lower wage demand among other revisions.
Canada Post, which has offered pay increases that would lead to a top rate of $26 an hour, called the union "out of touch" with the challenges facing the Crown corporation. Among these are a 17 per cent drop in mail volume since 2006.
Canada Post also said that the union's demands would cost almost $1.5 billion over four years.