Soldier’s wife calls out postal service
With her soldier husband overseas with the Canadian Armed Forces, Nicole Code wanted to send a “care package” from home for him and his friends: good coffee, trail mix to carry on patrol, current magazines to read in his isolated camp in a Mideast desert.
She was shocked to find it was going to cost her $96 in postage to send the morale-boosting box for her husband, Capt. Jeff Code.
“Actually, shocked is an under- statement,” Code said from her home in Kemptville. “We have so many missions with countless soldiers away from their loved ones and it’s a struggle for their families to send them stuff. “I would be interested to know just how many families don’t send something because they simply cannot afford it.”
Canada Post does offer some breaks for military members and their families. Packages can be sent for free during the holiday season, usually between October and January. After that, senders pay domestic postal rates to ship packages to the Forces post office in Belleville (Halifax or Victoria for naval ships). Once there, the military sends the mail overseas for free, depending on the space available on military flights.
Letters of up to 500 grams are delivered free year-round. The full policy is available on the Canada Post website.
Canada Post also accepts mail addressed to “Any Canadian Armed Forces member” — something the U.S. Postal Service no longer does — though those letters require full postage rates.
Canada Post’s policy isn’t too different from that of the U.S. service, which charges domestic rates to send packages to troops overseas. But U.S. postal rates are cheaper than Canada’s and the USPS also offers a cheaper flat-rate fee for packages up to 70 pounds. It will even deliver the boxes to your home free of charge for you to fill and ship.
Canadian military families can also take packages for overseas to one of 34 Military Family Resource Centres across the country, which will ship a parcel of up to 20 kg for free. More information is available on the military’s webpage.
Though Code’s husband’s current deployment, which he’s on until July, isn’t direct combat, it is still part of Canada’s anti-terrorism mission. The sacrifices of soldiers posted overseas are still significant, Code said.
“We’re sending our troops over there, but our federal systems doesn’t support that,” she said, adding the situation leaves her “sad and frustrated.”
“I know that he’s not there in a combat role, I understand that. But that doesn’t matter. He’s moved from his house, away from the luxuries we have here in Canada. Where he is, there are very limited resources. I just wanted to send a few things. It’s just a way to say thank you to the troops. … He’s very excited because it’s stuff like coffee and a trail mix that they can take with them out on patrol. It’s stuff that we take for granted, but they have no access to.”
Code said she tried calling Canada Post’s customer service line to complain but was simply told it was the Crown corporation’s policy.
Meanwhile, Code, who teaches grades 7 and 8 with the OttawaCarleton District School Board, is at home with the couple’s two sons, 3 and 5, and hopes that someone is listening to her complaint.
“I tell my students that it only takes one person to make a change,” she said. “I’m hoping to be that one.”