It still remains to be seen if the new government will get rid of recently installed community mailboxes, but the postal workers’ union is pleased that Canada Post is no longer adding new boxes.
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Canadian Union of Postal Workers national president Mike Palecek said Monday the new Liberal government “needs to follow through on their promise (and) ensure that nobody else loses their door-to-door delivery”.
The surprise decision comes a week after the Trudeau Liberals were elected with a pledge to review Canada Post’s plans to move away from door-to-door delivery in urban areas.
Canada Post says it will temporarily halt the program.
All conversions planned for then end of the year, and those announced for 2016 are placed on hold. In a statement released by the company, the Crown corporation says it will “work collaboratively with the Government of Canada to determine the best path forward given the ongoing challenges faced by the Canadian postal system”.
“We’re cautiously optimistic obviously”, said George Nickerson, the Coordinator for Save Canada Post in Atlantic Canada.
MacDonald immediately called Canada Post about the problem. Canada Post says customers who are already picking up their mail at a community box shouldn’t expect a return to door-to-door service.
Canada Post is expected to save about $700 million to $900 million per year once the plan is fully implemented, with the community mailbox conversion accounting for about $500 million of that.
“We couldn’t be happier”, she said.
“I was so disappointed to hear we were going to lose door-to-door delivery because it’s obviously very convenient for those of us who use wheelchairs, who use scooters, any kind of mobility aid”, she said.
As one wag observed, while the U.S. Mail slogan is “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds”, the Canadian slogan has become “Come and get your mail”.
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Of all the things Canadians could be spending public dollars on – crumbling infrastructure, strained health services, inadequate child care, low economic productivity – propping up this dying business model while maintaining five-day-per-week delivery is unjustifiable.
