Deachman: Once, Canada Post was vital. Now people tell me it's irrelevant
Article content
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.
Article content
Article content
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.
Article content
Article content
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.
Article content
Article content
'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.'
Article content
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.
Article content
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.
Article content
Article content
'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.
Article content
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.'
Article content
Article content
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.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
8 hours ago
- CTV News
UNIFOR President expresses concern over potential use of replacement workers by DHL Express
Watch UNIFOR President Lana Payne explains the DHL lockout of 2,000+ workers, stalled talks, and the impact of the ongoing Canada Post disruptions.
Calgary Herald
11 hours ago
- Calgary Herald
Chris Selley: Earth to Liberals — First Nations are not an anti-development monolith
Article content Sean Fraser — the federal Liberals' supposed master communicator who did a bad job as immigration minister, and then a bad job as housing minister, and then said he wasn't running again to spend time with his family, and then opportunistically changed his mind and was rewarded with the justice and attorney general portfolio — laid his first dog's egg of the Mark Carney era this week. Article content Article content Fraser said Indigenous groups don't have a 'complete veto' over natural-resource projects or any other government decisions — but that wasn't the turd in question, because it was absolutely true. Article content Article content The turd came later, apparently after getting his ears boxed by Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse: Fraser disavowed his entirely truthful statement. Article content 'I think even accepting the premise of the question that was put to me (about a 'veto') really made people feel like there may be an attempt by the government to work unilaterally, not in partnership (with First Nations),' Fraser told reporters in a public apology. Article content 'Despite innocent intentions, I think my comments actually caused hurt and potentially eroded a very precarious trust that has been built up over many years to respect the rights of Indigenous people in this country,' he said. Article content Article content Coming up on 500 years since Jacques Cartier first set foot here and named it Canada, and 150-plus years after the Crown concluded the first treaties with First Nations, and with President Donald Trump suddenly bringing our crippling dependence on the United States into very sharp focus, if we can't even speak the plain truth to each other in plain language, we might be in even bigger trouble than we realized. Article content Article content But I think we can speak the plain truth to each other in plain language, so long as we rightly marginalize fringe and unreasonable voices. While apologizing for speaking the truth, Fraser also accurately pointed to 'a frankly dangerous trope that paints a false picture of Indigenous peoples as being anti-development.' Article content The 2021 Census recorded 1.8 million Indigenous Canadians — five per cent of the Canadian population, give or take. No one would ascribe monolithic opinions like 'supports/doesn't support resource development' to any other ethnic five per cent of the Canadian population. Yet most Canadian media reliably frame these issues as 'First Nations versus the colonialist menace.'
National Post
21 hours ago
- National Post
Chris Selley: Earth to Liberals — First Nations are not an anti-development monolith
Sean Fraser — the federal Liberals' supposed master communicator who did a bad job as immigration minister, and then a bad job as housing minister, and then said he wasn't running again to spend time with his family, and then opportunistically changed his mind and was rewarded with the justice and attorney general portfolio — laid his first dog's egg of the Mark Carney era this week. Article content Article content Fraser said Indigenous groups don't have a 'complete veto' over natural-resource projects or any other government decisions — but that wasn't the turd in question, because it was absolutely true. Article content Article content The turd came later, apparently after getting his ears boxed by Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse: Fraser disavowed his entirely truthful statement. Article content 'I think even accepting the premise of the question that was put to me (about a 'veto') really made people feel like there may be an attempt by the government to work unilaterally, not in partnership (with First Nations),' Fraser told reporters in a public apology. 'Despite innocent intentions, I think my comments actually caused hurt and potentially eroded a very precarious trust that has been built up over many years to respect the rights of Indigenous people in this country,' he said. Article content Coming up on 500 years since Jacques Cartier first set foot here and named it Canada, and 150-plus years after the Crown concluded the first treaties with First Nations, and with President Donald Trump suddenly bringing our crippling dependence on the United States into very sharp focus, if we can't even speak the plain truth to each other in plain language, we might be in even bigger trouble than we realized. Article content Article content But I think we can speak the plain truth to each other in plain language, so long as we rightly marginalize fringe and unreasonable voices. While apologizing for speaking the truth, Fraser also accurately pointed to 'a frankly dangerous trope that paints a false picture of Indigenous peoples as being anti-development.' Article content Article content Media mostly portrayed the Ktunaxa Nation case, which wound up at the Supreme Court in 2017, as a matter of Indigenous people opposing the proposed Jumbo ski resort in eastern British Columbia on religious grounds: They felt the development would chase a spirit bear from their traditional lands. Receiving much less attention was the fact that the equally interested local Shuswap Nation supported the project, believing their concerns had been properly addressed and being eager to reap the financial benefits.
