“If Mark Carney and his Liberals were truly interested in building Canada with Canadian resources, they would not abandon a national postal service. Period.” said Matthew Aitken, a postal worker and grievence officer for union local 856 on Sherbrook St at the news that the Canadian government is moving towards ending door to door delivery.
Aitken said that letter mail has decreased substantially over the last decade, but parcel deliveries have not, and “by ending door-to-door delivery, they are going to lower the number of people in their workforce, and they’re going to lower their options to be competitive in the future.”
Aitken called the announcement an attack on good working class jobs that provide safe and secure services across the country.
Ha Yen Jiwa, secretary treasurer for the local said she has written letters to the minister about the importance of keeping home mail delivery available to people at all stages of their life, and called on Canada Post to develop postal banking services which have proven profitable in several European countries, including France, Sweden and Italy, to offset financial losses.
Aitken said the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) created a proposal paper over a decade ago to address technological and environmental changes in the Canadian context with proposals to meet a number of community needs.
“Delivering Community Power’ has existed for more than ten years and there has been little uptake on it the corporate world and in the halls of the ruling class to implement this plan because they know that it would bring the post office more visibility,…and viability.”
The plan included postal banking, installing charging stations for electric vehicles at Canada Post offices, as well as re-establishing fresh food delivery to rural and northern remote communities, a service, like postal banking, Canada Post used to deliver until the funding was moved to private sector food stores in 2010.
Aitken said the move to cut Canada Post services would just push Canadians into spending a lot more money on American owned delivery services with profits going out of the Canadian economy.
Currently Canada Post’s rates are the lowest for shipping for small businesses, and Aitkin expects prices could easly double or triple in a less regulated, and less competitive market.
Jiwa said there have been problems with community mailboxes – such as thefts and people dumping flyers and other materials around the boxes, but her main concern is keeping the service accessible.
“Not just elderly people, if you are a young mom, single mom or single dad, or you have a disability now you will have to make it to the community mailbox,” said Jiwa. She said Canada Post provides the most secure delivery options, but also that door to door delivery is the best service for any time when people have special needs.
“Canada Post is a service that we’re proud of. Medicare is something that we’re proud of. Right now elementary and high school are free and we want to keep it that way, because once we take we lose something we’ll lose more,” she said. “That is the trajectory. You cut this, although it works, (then) let’s cut that too. Is that what we really want?,” Jiwa asked.
In a letter posted on its website, Canada Post has communicated “given the government’s direction to begin taking initial steps, we are reaching out to our bargaining agents to consult on our approach to several proposed changes.”
The corporation has not finalized its plans, or announced a timeline for cuts to its service, but indicated that the announced changes will require amendments to the Canadian Postal Service Charter in order to come into effect.