WATCH ABOVE: The community mailboxes are coming, but some feel a large Crown corporation isn’t paying attention to the people it serves. Vinesh Pratap reports.
EDMONTON – Chanting “save door-to-door,” a small protest broke out beside the home of Deanna Kaminski Thursday morning, and the Edmonton resident was happy to take part.
“We’re losing a Canadian service,” the Mill Woods resident told Global News.
Kaminski was referring to the loss of door-to-door mail delivery. Canada Post is in the process of installing new community mail boxes, and Kaminski feels her concerns about box placement are not being heard.
“I really didn’t feel I was being talked to about it and I was told that I had no choice in the beginning,” Kaminski said.
“There’s a lot of children in the area. There’s a bus stop right at my corner. There’s so many issues in such a condensed area that I feel that it’s not the right spot for it.”
“I called right away to question them.”
Canada Post indicates it’s spent the last year surveying residents, and has spoken with the homeowner. But in this particular situation, an alternative location could not be found.
“This would be a case where relocating that box to an entirely different location would mean 28 homeowners would have to go quite a distance to get their mail and parcels,” Jon Hamilton said from Ottawa. “We try and avoid that.”
Kaminski tried to stop the installation. She built a planter at the location. The community mailbox is still going in, just a couple of metres from where it was proposed.
“Canada Post is just doing lip service. They’re basically saying, ‘We’re going to put them there.’ They may move them if they can a few feet,” said Jon Fischer with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.
“We’ve been…making adjustments as we go.”
The crown corporation stresses, though, it’s working to make the process as stress-free as possible.
“We’ve been out door knocking, talking to residents, making adjustments as we go,” indicated Jon Hamilton.
The installation of the new community mailboxes continues and Canada Post indicates they will go into service later this year.
Comments