By Will MacKenzie
When I first heard about the cutbacks (announced this past December 11th 2013) , I wondered if Canada Post was doing what the hospitals do when the government says it is going to cut funding for hospitals – announce dismissals of front-line workers so the taxpayers will get up-in-arms and scream at the politicians. The hope being, of course, that the politicians will shy away from the public outcry and reinstate the funding.
Canadians may soon see the last of door-to-door postal delivery
Is Canada Post management threatening to get rid of door-to-door delivery in the hope that we, the taxpayers, will scream at our MPs, who in turn will scream at the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance (Harper & Flaherty) in the hopes the government will give Canada Post money to maintain delivery?
We live in a semi-rural area outside Hamilton. At least half of the people in our little subdivision are retired. Some are well into their 80s. The main road is about 6/10ths of a kilometre from our house. There is a Canada Post mailbox there — where we can drop outgoing mail. In the winter, it is almost impossible to drop mail because the city plows bury the box. What will happen if they put the group mailboxes there?
Poor old Harold, who lives four doors away and is 83 is going to have a hell of a time getting his mail. It will be worse for his wife because she has trouble walking. Don’t suggest driving to the mailbox – the main road I am talking about is a two-lane highway that serves several very large quarries. There is a steady stream of large multi-axle tractor-trailer dump trucks all day and most of the night. On a day like today, where the temperature was 16F (-9C) It is cruel to expect a senior citizen, who worked for years to pay his taxes and keep society going, to struggle for a kilometre only to find he cannot get at the mailbox — or to find that Canada Post has failed to deliver on time!
Has Canada Post considered the possibility of going to every-other-day service? That would mean delivery Mon-Wed-Fri one week and Tues-Thurs the next. That would reduce the number of delivery employees needed in half.
I very rarely send out mail. I pay all my bills online. I receive most of my bills online as well. But I am very much aware that many people, especially older folks, are not comfortable with that. Why should they be penalized by having to pay $1.00 for every bill they pay by mail?
If Canada Post insists on reducing service, they damn well should reduce their prices!
As a small-c conservative, I am appalled that our federal government would even consider allowing this to happen. I also find it interesting that they waited until all eyes were on South Africa and the death of Nelson Mandela to make this public. The Prime Minister should be ashamed. This is the type of stunt I expect from Liberals!
If and when this comment is posted publicly, I will send the link to my local MP to let him know how I feel.
Will MacKenzie is a member of the former Township of Flamborough which, due to a forced amalgamation drive more than a decade ago by Ontario’s Mike Harris government is now part of City of Hamilton. He has a long and respected background in the fields of journalism and communications, and has been a regular contributor of comments to a range of issues addressed in posts on Niagara At Large.
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I agree with what you are saying in terms of Canada Post looking at other more reasonable means of cutting their costs. I would also add that we, as Canadians, need to look further into why Canada Post is continually in financial trouble.
I think it is safe to say that online shopping has grown exponentially (no one can disagree with that) and with that online shopping more and more purchasing is being done overseas… and again more often than not the items are coming from China with FREE shipping… FREE! Seems like an amazing deal as we know that shipping the same item within Canada would cost us a fortune….BUT are the consumers stopping to look at the big picture. China ships for free and drops a container in Canada, then our postal service is responsible for then delivering those items… in other words… we are doing this to ourselves.
There is a much bigger issue here… personally I won’t be sending mail if its costing a $1 per, this makes me sad. Maybe the general public is okay with less and less paper mail and I guess that is the “way of the world” now. I hope that people stop and think, we complain that there is no work, we complain that everything costs more and its true BUT we need to realize why… stop and think about it… if it’s cheaper to get something from China then to go pick it up down the street the bigger issue needs to be addressed. I once asked a colleague about a factory that left us locally to go open in Mexico, she is from Mexico, and I wanted to know that the factory would make life better for those in her country (while making things worse for us).
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I think Canada Post should look to what other OECD countries are doing. They are expanding and changing the types of services, not making deep cuts and hiking prices. Anybody who has taken Business 101 knows that hiking prices and slashing services is the fastest way to kill a business, especially if it is already in financial trouble.
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