EDMONTON — Door-to-door mail service officially came to an end for thousands of residents in south Edmonton Monday, but the union representing postal workers said the transition isn’t going very smoothly.
“It was a mess,” said Larry Dionne of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. “What we’re finding is we’re getting a lot of empty concrete pads with no community mailboxes. This has caused an awful lot of grief for our letter carriers that are supposed to be delivering to these community mailboxes.”
About 30,000 households of three Edmonton postal codes made the switch to community boxes Monday. But according to Dionne, several sites for community boxes in southeast Edmonton are still bare.
“For the customers, there’s a lot of confusion,” said Dionne. “They’re getting the keys to mailboxes that aren’t even installed yet.”
A spokesperson with Canada Post said Monday there are still some boxes that need to be installed, but overall the transition is going well.
“We’ve informed those customers that until we’ve installed their boxes and we’ve done a quality check on them, they’ll continue to get mail to their door,” said Jon Hamilton.
Canada Post announced plans in 2013 to phase out home delivery in urban centres across the country. The postal service said home delivery is too expensive.
READ MORE: 7 things to know about Canada Post’s plan to axe home delivery
The CUPW isn’t happy with the change, saying elderly people and those with disabilities are paying the price.
“Canada Post calls these community mailboxes and there’s really nothing community about them. They’re a self-serve mailbox,” said Dionne.
While many people are indifferent when it comes to the change, one Edmontonian isn’t going down without a fight. Ken Pudetz is staging a sit-in in his front yard, protesting the installation of a community box on his lawn.
Pudetz’s major concern is how the box will impact his property value, but he also worries about traffic.
“If you watch that box over there in broad daylight, and I have, people don’t walk to the box to collect their mail, they drive.”
Pudetz plans to continue to camp out on his lawn for as long as it takes to prevent the box from being built.
“Snow up to my nose, 40 below zero – I’ll either be dead or I’ll be a winner.”
Hamilton said Canada Post spent a year consulting with residents on community box placement and will continue to work with them to help accommodate their concerns.
“At the end of the day we’re looking for safe, secure and convenient, accessible locations.”
Canada Post hopes to see all door-to-door mail service come to an end by 2019.
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