Strange

Mailed to the cross: Canada Post kills rural postal service

by Kaitlin | January 14, 2008 at 03:36 pm

983 views | 7 Recommendations | 3 comments

As someone who grew up in and around the "unsafe" roads and areas that receive mail in rural boxes, I initially viewed this piece with anger--once again, the government aims to divert services from the more isolated areas of Canada and Canadians who need it.

So far, about 14,000 rural Canadian residents, mostly in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes, have lost their roadside mailboxes because Canada Post has decided it's too hazardous to deliver their mail.

That represents 30 per cent of the roughly 47,000 boxes that have come under scrutiny as Canada Post begins applying a new assessment tool to determine the safety of each and every one of the 843,000 rural mailboxes it serves.

Then I read into it a bit more: as a Crown Corporation, Canada Post is

operated both by provincial crowns and the federal Crown, as a means to pursue economic, social and political objectives.

Eliminating rural service or consolidating it to community mailboxes could save Canada Post major moolah (the article mentions a number between $475 and $640-million). This means the Crown can "pursue" other "economic objectives." Excellent!

Not to be cynical--I'm all for conserving resources in some cases--but to me it seems suspicious that a system that's been in place for nearly a hundred years (and before which was done by pony, for pete's sake) can all of a sudden be more difficult. My gut reaction, as one of those rural-raised, hard-skinned people that Canada Post intends to sideline (if, in fact, this isn't about money)? Suck it up, princess postal worker! Think I should be more understanding? Consider this:

Carriers are also worried about repetitive-strain injury from leaning out vehicle windows to stuff the mail into roadside boxes.

Need I say more?

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Rob Peters

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 16:19 on January 14th, 2008

Repetitive strain injury? Delivering the mail is always going to be a repetitive strain, whether the mailbox be urban, rural, or Martian.

Barry Artiste

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 17:29 on January 14th, 2008

Kaitlin, with the advent of email, Canada Post like many other Post offices world wide are seeing a drastic drop in letters, the same is with stamps, now more as a collector item than a purpose. When was the last time you actually mailed a actual personal letter from home. Soaring Postal rates do not help either. Like Bank Tellers, and ATMs, Buggy Whip makers versus Cars if we dont use it, we lose it. The passenger train used to be the be all end all, with Cars, Buses, Cruises and Airplanes outpacing passenger Trains.Trains are pretty much relegated to carrying freight, not passengers. Trains are more environmentally friendly and carry more people, but in a I want to get there now society, unless we use Bullet Trains at 300 kmh the passenger train too will also go the way of the Post Office one day. By the way and excellent article Kaitlin.

Miyspirit

at 20:25 on January 14th, 2008

Kaitlin, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Great story...They just changed our home delivery to mail
boxes last spring in my rural area, i'm not liking this at all...its so not convenient,
especially went its really cold or snowing out...meanwhile the prices of stamps
are still the same but the services are fewer....go figure!