Churchill MP Niki Ashton is renewing calls for Canada Post to maintain door-to-door delivery in Flin Flon, Thompson and across Canada.
The Crown corporation announced July 17 that home delivery will be revoked from Flin Flon and Thompson sometime in 2016. Residents will instead pick up their mail from community mailboxes.
“Hundreds of people in Flin Flon and Thompson have spoken out in favour of home delivery,” said Ashton in a news release. “This is a critical service to our northern communities and we won’t stand by and let this happen.”
But short of her NDP winning the fall election, it’s not clear how Ashton can stop a service reduction Canada Post plans to implement across Canada by the end of 2018.
“This is part of a five-year initiative to convert one-third of Canadian addresses who still have delivery at the door to community mailboxes in an effort to secure postal service for the future,” Canada Post spokesman John Caines said in an email. “Since the program began in 2014, more than one million addresses have been or are in the various stages of the conversion process.”
Caines said no regular full- or part-time employees will lose their jobs as a result of the conversion and that Canada Post aims to reduce its workforce by not replacing workers who retire.
Canada Post says the service change is a result of less mail being sent.
Ashton said the NDP is committed to reinstating home mail delivery if elected to form government. The Liberals have also said they oppose the cancellation of home delivery.
“Home delivery is a key service for seniors, people living with disabilities and for families in Flin Flon and Thompson,” said Ashton. “We will fight to keep it. My message to Canada Post and the federal government is hold off on cancelling home delivery because if the NDP is elected government in October we will save home delivery in Thompson, Flin Flon and across Canada.”
