Members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers made a stop in Dieppe Saturday morning during their cross-country awareness campaign to save door-to-door mail delivery.
“We’re seeing a real, growing groundswell of opposition to this plan,” says Mike Palecek, the National President of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. “We now have almost 600 municipalities across the country which have passed resolutions or sent letters demanding this to be stopped.”
Ronda McCready is with the Geritological Nursing Association. She says seniors and those with mobility issues are most affected by the abolition of home mail delivery.
“It's just not an effective way for many of our seniors to collect their mail,” she says. “It's just not going to work.”
Some say, however, the community mailboxes work.
“I like the fact that if we're away, I don't have to worry about mail sitting in my mail box and just pick it up when I want,” says Dieppe resident Denise White.
Canada Post announced it would phase out door-to-door mail delivery in urban centres two years ago, resulting in the elimination of up to 8,000 jobs.
“There's no reason for making these cut,” says Palecek. “Canada Post made 200 million dollars last year and they keep giving us the same Chicken Little story that the sky is falling.”
Canadian Union of Postal Workers members are collecting names on a petition that will be sent to local Conservative members of Parliament who voted to abolish door-to-door mail delivery.
“Those elements of our election commitments aren't yet public, but I'm very confident Canadians will be happy with the position we take about the importance of door-to-door mail delivery,” says Beausejour MP Dominc LeBlanc.
As for Canada Post, they say by cutting home mail delivery, coupled with their proposed reduction in the workforce, they will return to financial stability by 2019.
