City panel recommends fight against community mailboxes
A city commission is recommending that Montreal join a legal challenge launched in Federal Court last November to strike down Canada Post’s ongoing plans to install community mailboxes and phase out door- to- door delivery.
“We’re taking a hard line,” Sud-Ouest borough Mayor Benoit Dorais, chairman of the commission on social development and Montreal diversity, said in an interview Tuesday night before unveiling the recommendations at city hall.
“We’re urging the city and the agglomeration council to take all possible action against Canada Post and the federal government.”
The commission’s 30- page report follows public hearings that were held last month on Canada Post’s plans.
Dorais noted that Canada Post has already set up community mailboxes in Kirkland, Lachine, Pierrefonds and Île- Bizard, and has informed other boroughs of the locations of future mailboxes. A total of 700,000 houses on Montreal Island would be affected.
On Nov. 4, several groups representing pensioners and the disabled, including the Confédération des organismes de personnes handicapées du Québec, filed a notice of application in Federal Court asking it to declare that Canada Post’s elimination of door- to- door delivery violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
It’s that challenge that the commission recommends that Montreal join, allowing it to intervene in the case, Dorais said.
The commission’s report will be tabled at the next city council meeting on Monday. Ultimately, the executive committee will decide whether to follow any of the recommendations. Mayor Denis Coderre is already on record as saying he is strongly opposed to Canada Post’s plans.
As a Crown corporation, Canada Post has the right to place community mailboxes on city land running along residential properties, Dorais explained.
“But all kinds of nuisances come with the community mailboxes, including vandalism and a great deal of vehicle traffic, which can result in people parking their cars on private property and sometimes causing damage,” he said.
The report warns that some property values would drop and certain municipal expenses, like snow removal, would rises as a direct consequence of community mailboxes.
Canada Post has argued that phasing out door- to- door delivery over five years is necessary in order for it to “remain financially self- sufficient.”
The Dorais report’s recommendations also apply to the Montreal Agglomeration Council. Among the recommendations:
That Canada Post carry out a study evaluating the economic impact of its plan on the direct and indirect loss of jobs.
That the city and agglomeration council demonstrate to the federal government the financial costs that Montreal is likely to bear as a result of Canada Post’s plan.