Latest news with #MelissaGraham
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
AGAR: Once a week is just fine for Canada Post mail delivery
The post office can no longer afford to deliver mail to your door every day. Get over it. Perhaps the solution is not community mailboxes. I'm from a community on the Prairies that's never had home delivery of the mail. That's why I find it surprising to read of people who think the sky will fall and it will rain frogs if they don't get their mail delivered to their sofa every day. Global News ran a story that begins, 'Judy Frank says no longer getting mail at her door would make life harder. 'The 78-year-old Regina woman is unable to walk more than a few steps and says she would need someone to pick up her mail if Canada Post stops door-to-door service. ''It's very dangerous,' Frank said in a recent interview, pointing to the uneven and cracked sidewalk outside her home.' I don't know how older or housebound people got their mail in Gilbert Plains, Manitoba, back in the day. My father ran the post office and I don't remember him taking the mail to anyone's house. Perhaps a friend or relative handled it. Most of the people in my town lived farther from the post office than people live from their community mailbox — and somehow, we all survived. Canada Post estimates it would save about $350 million per year by converting to community boxes and says it can do that while still delivering to those with disabilities. Okay, then Frank has nothing to worry about if her mail is still being delivered to her home. Global also interviewed Melissa Graham, executive director of the Manitoba League of Persons with Disabilities in Winnipeg, who said replacing door-to-door mail with community boxes has created barriers. '(Boxes) used to ice up. They used to be in areas that were difficult to get to, if you had a mobility disability,' Graham said. 'They often didn't have braille, so you could not find your mailbox easily.' I'm sure some people never leave the house for family visits, groceries, doctor appointments, etc., such that they can't go half a block for the mail a few days a week. Regardless, I still think the post office's solution of community mailboxes is the wrong way to go. You cannot convince me, with so much of what we do online, that we need daily delivery of the mail to residences. Businesses are a different matter. Perhaps you get a flood of mail every day that is of an essential nature, but I go days with no mail. I am good with that. Instead of community mailboxes, how about once-a-week delivery of the mail? That would still get the mail to your door, but it would cut the need for postal employees by a huge amount. The post office is hemorrhaging money and there is nothing to suggest the situation will get better. Postal workers should make a good living. But we don't need as many of them as we have now. A caller to my show said he delivers mail and once a week would result in too high a load of flyers for delivery to doorsteps. If it is that high, why isn't it paying the bills? Once a week, the day before garbage day. Get the connection?
National Post
24-05-2025
- General
- National Post
'Not good': Concerns revived over recommendation to end door-to-door mail delivery
Article content Canada Post began phasing out door-to-door delivery in 2014, which resulted in about 830,000 households being converted to community boxes. The move was unpopular in many neighbourhoods, where residents complained about losing accessibility and convenience. Some also took issue with damage and litter around the boxes. Article content The federal Liberal government under former prime minister Justin Trudeau imposed a moratorium in 2015, preventing Canada Post from doing additional conversions. Article content Melissa Graham, executive director of the Manitoba League of Persons with Disabilities in Winnipeg, said replacing door-to-door mail with community boxes created barriers. Article content '(Boxes) used to ice up. They used to be in areas that were difficult to get to, if you had a mobility disability,' Graham said. 'They often didn't have braille, so you could not find your mailbox easily.' Article content The report says Canada Post has a program to accommodate those with accessibility needs and that the program should be reviewed and enhanced if required. Article content It also recommends lifting a 1994 moratorium that prevents Canada Post from closing rural post offices. Article content The report doesn't provide a list of post offices that should close, but it points out some in suburban communities that were classified as rural no longer are. For example, post offices in the Ontario municipalities of Milton and Richmond Hill no longer fit the rural criteria, even though they were classified as such in 1994. Article content The post office in the Ottawa suburb of Stittsville was also classified as rural before it was amalgamated by the capital city. Article content Glen Gower, a city councillor for Stittsville, said the community was rural 25 years ago but has changed. It now has a second Canada Post outlet, he added. Article content Gower said replacing the original post office with affordable housing makes sense for what the community needs, if one post office could handle all its mail. Article content 'It is sitting on a huge piece of Crown land. But I do want to make sure postal services are maintained,' he said. 'I think (the original post office) is of less significance than it would have been 25 years ago.' Article content Article content The report says ending the moratoriums on rural post offices and community boxes could cause massive public opposition.
