Canada Post has halted installation of community mailboxes, one week after the Trudeau Liberals were elected with a pledge to scrap the move away from door-to-door delivery.
“Canada Post is temporarily suspending future deployment of the program to convert door-to-door mail delivery to community mailboxes,” the Crown agency said in a statement.
The move means nearly half a million households that were to be converted over the next two months will keep their current mail service.
It’s great news and a good start, said Janet Barney, president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers Local 850 in Victoria.
“This is a start,” Barney said. “Now we have to see what [Trudeau] does, if he will fully restore it for people who have lost [door-to-door] over the last two years.”
As far as Barney is concerned, the halt means 20 full-time employees in the West Shore will remain employed in the New Year. “Colwood, Langford, View Royal, Vic West and Esquimalt were supposed to implement in January,” she said. “But according to this note from Canada Post, anything in November, December and 2016 is now on hold.”
The note came a little late for Sidney, which fully implemented community mail boxes on Monday.
Barney said that move meant eight full-time employees lost their jobs, and the community is dealing with issues of mail boxes not installed yet and some in unsuitable places.
She said Canada Post was preparing to start a six-month conversion process for Saanich, Victoria and Oak Bay. It’s unclear if that will go ahead.
Canada Post said in its statement that “efforts are now underway to place the comprehensive program on hold in an orderly fashion. Customers impacted by this decision will receive a letter within the next few weeks advising them of the status of their mail delivery service.”
But those already converted over the past 10 months will not get door-to-door service back — at least not under Canada Post’s current plan.
The union representing postal employees said it was elated with the news. But the Canadian Union of Postal Workers will be pushing the Liberal government to reverse the cuts to postal services that have been made so far, said the organization’s national president.
“I think the people of this country spoke quite clearly last Monday,” said Mike Palecek. “We also need to look at restoring the home mail delivery to those who have already lost it,” Palecek added.
“And we need to look at having a public mandate review for Canada Post about exactly what direction we want this Crown corporation to go.”
CUPW has been pushing Canada Post to expand its business into ventures such as postal banking services, similar to those adopted in other countries including the U.K. and France.
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau promised during the election campaign to reverse cuts to door-to-door mail delivery that were begun under the Harper Conservative government.
And with the Liberals elected to a majority, some Liberal MPs said they were getting an earful from constituents who wanted to know why the boxes were still being installed.
There were several protests against the installations in Ontario and Newfoundland, with some people defiantly taking to standing or lying on dirt piles to prevent workers from placing cement foundations for the mailboxes.
Canada Post, however, was adamant that it was moving ahead with the mailbox conversions, telling CUPW last week — after the election results were known — that it would not back away from the plan. It also placed ads to hire door-to-door canvassers to sell the merits of community mail delivery in B.C.
But Monday, the Crown agency said it would rethink its plan.
“We will work collaboratively with the Government of Canada to determine the best path forward given the ongoing challenges faced by the Canadian postal system,” the corporation said.
Canada Post has been warning for some time it expects home mail delivery revenues to continue to decline. It announced in 2013 a plan to phase out door-to-door delivery and cut up to 8,000 jobs.
The corporation said it handled nearly 1.2 billion fewer pieces of mail in 2013 than in 2006.
Canada Post reported in May letter mail volumes fell 8.4 per cent in the first quarter of 2015, or by
41 million pieces, compared with the same period a year earlier. At the same time, however, the agency said it recorded a 10-per-cent increase in overall revenues.
