Canadian Union of Postal Workers gets support for door-to-door delivery in Thunder Bay

Superior Morning5:11Community Mailboxes Meeting

Canada Post has announced it's ending door-to-door mail delivery in Thunder Bay. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers hosted a public meeting on the matter. We hear what some people had to say.The union that represents postal workers in Thunder Bay had a lot of support at a public meeting in the city Thursday night.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers is opposing the pending switch to community mailboxes in Thunder Bay and Dryden next year.

And they're not alone.

More than 200 people came to the town hall meeting, including Sandra Stewart, who asked, "With our aging population — and it's going to become more aged — why would they think to take door-to-door mail away from senior citizens?"

Stewart said her mother is almost 100 years old and still lives in her own house. While her mother is still mobile, Stewart said she worries about her — and other seniors — making the trek to get the mail in winter.

For many at the meeting, getting their mail from a community mailbox is not something they want to do.

Essential service?

Don Taylor said he too is thinking about what it will mean for seniors like himself.

"It's an essential service as far as I'm concerned," he said.

"And [it's an essential service for] a lot of other seniors too, I think. It's communication. I'm still able to get around, [but] a lot of people my age aren't."

Constance Best runs an in-home daycare and looks after her elderly parents, one of whom has dementia. She said picking up the mail daily will be challenging.

"How am I going to get out? How am I going to get to the mailbox? That's just impossible. I can't pretty much leave the house unless I have care."

Best said the information package that Canada Post sent out, and the invitation to give feedback, wasn't adequate.

"I felt it was really misconstrued, and the numbers were going to be in their favour no matter which way you filled it out, because some of the [choices], weren't applicable," she said, adding there also wasn't the opportunity to leave comments.

"So they really didn't want to hear what we had to say."

Canada Post says Thunder Bay, along with Dryden, will switch to community mailboxes next year.

Union weighs in

Joanne Nowosad, president of the Thunder Bay local of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, said she wants residents to make their voices heard.

"I would hope that the public will stand up and tell Canada Post, 'no,' they're not ready to have this change."

Nowosad added she hopes the scheduled end to door-to-door mail will be an election issue this fall.

The public meeting was hosted by the union. Nowosad says the meeting was about giving information to the public.

The union says community mailboxes aren't accessible to seniors and people with disabilities, they're vulnerable to break-ins and theft, they cause higher amounts of traffic where they're situated, and cities could end up paying for maintenance of the grounds around them.

Nowosad said she heard of a spree of break-ins at some community mailboxes in rural areas of Thunder Bay around Christmas last year that affected about 100 people. Rural areas and some newer subdivisions in Thunder Bay already have the community mailboxes.

The union also says there's no reason for the elimination of door-to-door service, because Canada Post is making money.

Union officials say a Conference Board of Canada prediction that Canada Post will lose a billion dollars in 2020 if it doesn't overhaul the way it does things is based on entirely wrong numbers.