Flin Flonners will lose the convenience of door-to-door mail delivery as a cost-cutting Canada Post phases out the service within five years.
With door-to-door delivery being eliminated across the country, six local letter carriers will be out of a job by 2018.
“My own personal opinion is, I don’t want to lose those local jobs,” said Mayor George Fontaine, reacting to Wednesday morning’s announcement.
“...every time we lose some jobs in this community, we lose a piece of our community.”
Across the country, Canada Post will be installing more “community mailboxes” – outdoor units containing postal boxes for each home in a given neighbourhood.
Community mailboxes are already common in parts of Canada, including newer subdivisions.
But Mayor Fontaine worries how the change will impact mobility-challenged residents who currently receive their mail at home.
“The vulnerable people are going to find it more difficult,” he said.
Gord Fischer, national director of the prairie region for the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, said he was “quite shocked” by the announcement.
“I think that I was shocked probably more at the timing,” he said in a phone interview from his Winnipeg office. “Here we are right before Christmas and, without significant warning or consultation with the public or the union, Canada Post drops this on the entire country.”
Flin Flon and Thompson are the only two northern Manitoba communities with door-to-door mail delivery. Neither Creighton nor Denare Beach have ever had the service.
The silver lining to Wednesday’s announcement is that at least some of the job losses in Flin Flon may occur through attrition rather than layoffs.
But that will depend on who is still working as a carrier when Flin Flon actually converts to the community mailbox system at an undetermined point by late 2018.
Nationwide, Canada Post expects to eliminate 6,000 to 8,000 jobs through the move. But over the same time frame, it’s anticipated that nearly 15,000 workers will retire or leave the company.
Flin Flon MLA Clarence Pettersen said he sympathizes with employees who may be impacted, but expressed hope retirement packages could be worked out.
Pettersen said the nature of the mail service has changed over the years.
“We get a few bills in the mail, that’s about it, a few cards,” he said, adding that the Internet has become a dominant form of communication.
Added Pettersen: “It’s just times are changing and so I guess we’ve got to change with the times.”
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MP Niki Ashton, who has been a vocal critic of Canada Post, called the plan “unacceptable.”
“House-to-house delivery is an essential service for Canadians in a number of our communities,” she said.
Ashton said Canada Post employees had offered to sit down with their employer to “find ways to make things work,” but that never happened.
The opposition MP plans to host a town hall in Flin Flon in January to give residents a chance to voice their concerns over the plan.
Revenue decline
Canada Post said the move is necessary in a time of declining revenues and falling letter mail volumes.
The Crown corporation also plans to raise the cost of stamps from 63 cents to either 85 cents (if buying in bulk) or $1 (if buying individually). This would take effect March 31, 2014.
Coming off a quarterly loss of $129 million, Canada Post said its plan will return it to “financial sustainability by 2019 and ensure continued role of enabling trade and commerce.”
Like Fischer, Mayor Fontaine encouraged residents opposed to the plan to contact city council, their MP and Canada Post itself.
“You know, if it turns out, like on any issue, that nobody cares, then it’s pretty hard to fight it as city council,” Mayor Fontaine said. “People should voice their opinions to us.”
Canada Post will begin phasing out door-to-door delivery across the country in the second half of 2014. The first communities to lose the service have not been announced.
Meanwhile, Canada Post still plans to open a franchise outlet in Flin Flon that would allow residents to pick up parcels and utilize postal services at night and on the weekends.
Fischer said the union is not opposed to expanded hours but believes Canada Post workers, not franchisees, should assume the role.
The local postal union has said the franchise outlet would end counter service at the post office, a claim Canada Post denies.
A woman walks past mailboxes in front of the Flin Flon Post Office on Wednesday afternoon.
PHOTO BY JONATHON NAYLOR
