Deachman: Once, Canada Post was vital. Now people tell me it's irrelevant
Joanne Bateman recently received a letter in the mail from her insurance company in Winnipeg. It was postmarked 19 days earlier.
According to Google Maps, it takes 19 days to walk from Winnipeg to Ottawa. One wonders if that is how the letter actually made it to this city.
Perhaps it's not a surprise, then, that the 79-year-old Bateman says the ongoing labour strife between the Crown corporation and its workers won't affect her: 'Not one bit.' Canada Post, she says, is simply not important to her anymore.
Tha's the problem the post office faces as management and the union CUPW grapple over a new contract for 55,000 employees. The jousting has been going on since November, 2023, and led to a 32-day strike over the 2024 Christmas period.
'I don't get much mail beyond flyers, and I only check my mailbox about once a week. I use my computer for a lot of my interactions,' said Bateman. 'I don't send cards; I send Happy Birthday emails. I don't send letters to friends; I just call or FaceTime them.'
Bateman's experience isn't universal, but judging from the quick straw poll I conducted outside the the Canada Post outlet at Fairlawn Mall on Friday, it's an increasingly common one. Reliance on the post office is following the path of the dodo.
Remember how upset we got when Canada Post announced in 2013 that it intended to drop home delivery in many areas in favour of community mailboxes? Nowadays, some residents are suggesting that home delivery be almost abandoned altogether.
'The federal government should still have a hand in this — every country in the world has a postal service — but they could cut it down to once-a-week delivery,' said Blake McIntyre, a Gatineau resident who noted he only receives about two letters a month in the mail, mostly from government departments. If he were slightly more advanced with his computer equipment, he could get that number even lower.
McIntyre's not in favour of full-on privatization of the post office, but said there might be a solution that leans in that direction. 'Maybe the government could contract it out but still be in control of it. But the federal government can't walk away from it, not yet.'
He's doubtful, though, that the corporation's stated wish to use more part-time employees at the cost of full-time ones will ever happen. 'You think those full-time union guys are going to walk back and let the part-timers take over? I don't think so.'
Melanie Stanton agrees that mail delivery could drop to one or two days a week without ruffling many feathers.
'I've always used the post office, but they need to cut things to make it work,' she said. 'We don't need delivery five days a week. We just don't.
'I think there's a place for the post office, but not the way it is right now.'
By contrast, Peaches Nicholas, 78, calls herself 'a Canada Post girl.'
'I can't live without it,' she told me. 'I like to communicate by mail: birthday cards, Christmas cards, anniversaries and letters. It's because I'm ancient; I'm not 21 or 22. I love opening my mail. I want Canada Post to keep on keeping on.'
She relies on Canada Post, in addition to other electronic means, to keep in touch with family members in Port of Spain, in Trinidad and Tobago. But that's a costly proposition; on Friday, she sent an ordinary letter to her sister Elizabeth in Port of Spain, which cost $10. 'If I was to send it express, it would be $60.' She says it's cheaper than talking at length on the phone, and when I suggested she try What'sApp, she sighed. 'I know. But I like communicating by writing — it's warm.'
Warm, but, at least in terms of cards and letters, on life support. And I suspect there are many people who are recently and uncomfortably realizing that apart from the Canadian Tire flyer that arrives in their mailbox on Mondays, say, they no longer have much of a relationship with Canada Post.
'I feel kind of guilty saying it, but I could live without Canada Post,' lamented Lorraine Walton.
'Young people don't know any different, and let's face it, out generation is going to be gone in 20 years.'
Don't remind us. We know. But do Canada Post and its workers?
bdeachman@postmedia.com
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