Local union rep. works to save door-to-door postal service

“We are hoping to pass a resolution for Canada Post to rethink what they are doing, because they haven’t consulted with the seniors and people with disabilities,” said Day. “They haven’t really done their research with Canada.”

She added that in Saskatchewan so far only Moose Jaw and Yorkton have passed these resolutions.

There has been a lot of upheaval in the community as well, according to Day, with the elderly speaking out the most about how cutting this more personal service will have negative effects.

“The elderly people stop us as we’re delivering mail and crying to us that sometimes we’re the only people they see in the day, this is the only service left coming to their door, and they don’t feel like walking on ice and in the snow to go and pick up their mail, it’s too much for them,” said Day. “They’re trying to live on their own and their older and they do not have family living around Prince Albert.”

And Day said it’s not just the elderly showing their concern about losing this service.

“There’s many different situations that would make it that it would be hard for a person to go to a community mailbox,” said Day. “Around the city there’s been lots of support, there’s been lots of Save Door-to-Door signs either in the snow or in their house they have signs supporting us.”

The other side of the coin is the possibility of job cuts coming with the cancellation of this service.

Day says there’s already been signs from communities that cancelled the service of major job cuts.

“In Fort McMurray they had 34 walks and now they are down to 17 so they’ve been cut in half,” said Day. “Here in Prince Albert we have 26 full time walks and two part-time, so if you cut that in half that would be down to 13 walks, and we have relief letter carriers who cover for people that are sick and on holidays, we have seven of those right now and they want to cut those down to four.”

Overall 17 people would find themselves jobless, according to Day, following the cancellation of the door-to-door service in Prince Albert.

Day said that she tried to point out to officials what she feels is a glaringly obvious issue with this new community box system.

“I did mention to them that in Fort McMurray it was going horribly wrong,” said Day. “They have two letter carriers on one walk and they can’t finish it in the eight hours they are allotted; there’s a lot of theft going on with the community mailboxes which we are concerned about.”

She added that often times when people receive flyers or junk mail they’ll just throw it on the ground at the community box which leads to a pile up of unsightly litter.

“It’s going to make things messy around our city, who’s going to pick it up?” said Day. “Who’s going to pay to remove the snow to make sure they are accessible so people don’t slip and fall.”

Day said she still doesn’t fully understand why Canada Post is getting rid of this service.

“This service is not costing tax-payers money, we are a self-sustaining corporation, and they keep saying how we lose money, but we are not losing money,” said Day. “With Christmas, that’s our biggest season, and they’ve made lots of money, there’s been, I think they said parcel delivery was going up about 20 to 25 per cent this Christmas and I think they might have exceeded that.”

“It’s kind of unfair that the price of stamps go up and then they cut services.”

She said in the end it’s not just about job loss or inconvenience but it’s about the personal touch that she and her fellow postal delivery persons bring to the job.

“Sometimes we might save a life, and sometimes we might help somebody with something,” said Day. “Somebody had stolen a lady’s wallet because her vehicle had been trashed, and I actually just went around the corner and found her wallet, so you know, I brought it back to her.”

If you’d like to join the growing number of supporters in Prince Albert who are against cutting this service, Day said that postal workers will deliver a sign to your door to put on your lawn or in your window.

Just contact Canada Post by calling 306-953-1900, or talk to your local delivery person.

jbowler@panow.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow

by James Bowler

Local union rep. works to save door-to-door postal service

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