OPENING PANDORA’S MAILBOX
Confusion, frustration greet decision to put community mailboxes on hold
Canada Post switched nearly 300,000 addresses to community mailboxes on Monday, just hours before suspending future installations, the union said.
Mike Palecek, national president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, said the union was upset that Canada Post did not immediately halt the conversion pro- gram, given the Liberals’ decisive victory a week ago.
The Liberals had campaigned on the promise of restoring home delivery, saying that the plan to switch about 5 million addresses to community mailboxes under the outgoing Conservative government was asking Canadians to pay more for less service.
By waiting until this Monday to make the announcement, tens of thousands of boxes were switched over in Ottawa, Montreal and London alone, Palecek said.
In Aurora on Tuesday, where some of the 300,000 new mailboxes were installed, resident Karrie McFee called the change of gears “absolutely ridiculous.”
“For crying out loud. I didn’t realize they’re stopping the installation of these boxes. I was out of town, so I’m just hearing that now. Why would you waste all that money doing this, then stop?” said the 45-year-old.
“I don’t love having to walk to this box. It’s inconvenient to have it so far away from my house.”
Palecek said there is no commitment to restore delivery to those who lost it.
The union leader said he called Canada Post CEO Deepak Chopra last week to discuss the Liberal election victory, and the party’s campaign promise to restore home delivery.
But Palecek said a senior manager returned the call, and informed him that the mailbox conversions would “proceed as planned unless told otherwise by the shareholder.”
Canada Post is a Crown corporation and the shareholder refers to the government of Canada.
The policy change was part of a sweeping plan announced in December 2013 to cut costs as Canada Post faces a steep decline in mail volumes.
At the time, only about one-third of Canadians received their mail at the door, with many suburban areas already using community mailboxes, and apartment and condo dwellers getting their mail in the lobby.
Seniors and disabled groups bitterly complained about the planned conversions, with both the Liberals and New Democrats promising to restore delivery.
Canada Post issued a short statement on Monday, saying it was temporarily suspending conversions, planned for November and December and beyond, but those switched over in October would continue to use the community mailboxes.
It promised to work collaboratively with the federal government “to determine the best path forward given the ongoing challenges faced by the Canadian postal system.”
A Liberal official said the incoming government, which doesn’t take over until Nov. 4, played no role in the Canada Post decision.
“We have sent no signals to them. We’re pretty by the book on the one government at a time thing,” the official told the Star’s Bruce Campion-Smith. Canada Post spokesman Jon Hamilton declined to comment on Tuesday, saying the post office is focused on putting 460,000 November and December addresses on hold in an orderly fashion.
“This is a big job and we are committed to providing reliable postal service to our customers without disruption,” he said.
“They certainly changed their minds,” said Palecek, who added that the union wants to see the customers who were switched to the superboxes have their service restored.
That will be a challenge, and could prove to be very costly, said Carleton University business professor Ian Lee, who noted that there would be contracts in place for the rollout of the mailboxes, and penalties for cancellation.
However, Lee argued the bigger concern would be the huge financial cost of not eliminating door-to-door home delivery, which was to bring $500 million in annual savings to Canada Post, when fully implemented in 2019.
“There is just no way around the numbers,” he said. “You’re blowing a hole in Canada Post’s budget or in the government of Canada’s budget. Either one is unpalatable.”
Lee said that while the push to restore mail delivery gained traction during the election, he believes many people don’t understand the cost associated with reversing the policy. “The vast majority of people couldn’t give a . . . damn about the post office,” he said. With files from Donovan Vincent