Canada Post to cut hours in Parham, Godfrey, Maberly

Jeff Green | Jan 23, 2014

Canada Post is planning to cut 25% of its hours at the Parham, Godfrey and Maberly post offices.

The proposed cuts were announced via letters to township councils on January 8, and communicated directly to the postmasters involved by Glen Baldock, the local area manager for Canada Post in Kingston. The changes include eliminating Saturday hours in all three locations, and cutting overall hours from 36 to 27.

While the hours are somewhat different in all three locations, the changes would result in later openings and earlier closings on weekdays, with the notable exception being Thursday afternoons, when extended hours are being contemplated.

The postmasters at all three locations, who are unionized employees under a collective bargaining agreement with the Canadian Postmasters and Assistants Association (CPAA), were reluctant to talk about the proposed changes, but they did say that they were not consulted about the proposals before Glen Baldock came to see them a week or so ago. Without going into detail, they said they did offer alternatives to Baldock, based on their own experience with their customers.

They expressed a concern, as did a number of customers we talked to, that the earlier closings in the afternoons, along with the Saturday closings, will make it difficult for customers who work 9am-5pm jobs to get their mail at the post office.

If the changes go through as contemplated, it will result in the Godfrey and Maberly post offices being open from 11 am – 4 pm Mondays to Wednesdays and on Fridays, and 11 am – 6 pm on Thursdays.

In the case of the Godfrey post office, this will not be possible, because the office is located within LD Powersports, which closes at 5 pm each day. The post office does not have a separate entrance so it must close when LD closes.

In Parham, where the current hours of operation are 9am until 12 noon and 2 - 5:30 pm on weekdays, and 9 am -12:30 pm on Saturdays, it is proposed that the hours will be 9 am until 12 noon and 2:30 to 4:30 on each day except Thursday, when the afternoon opening is to be extended until 6:30 p.m.

According to the letter Glen Badock sent to the local councils, “A careful review has determined that we have a very small number of local customers” during the hours of the day that Canada Post is planning to cut.

This review was based on the time of day when most sales are made at the outlets, which is tracked by the Canada Post computer, but the postal employees at the locations said that the data does not account for the use of the post office by customers to pick up their mail, which is not tracked.

In his letter to the townships, Baldock indicated that a final decision about the changes has not been made yet. “We will be holding discussions with the local representatives of our employees' associations, the Canadian Postmasters and Assistants Association (CPAA) and will communicate the results with you once these discussions have occurred. Rest assured that these potential changes will take our customers' and your constituents’ postal needs into consideration. We remain committed to providing postal services in urban and rural communities across the country.”

The News called Glen Baldock for comment but we did not receive a return call before our publication deadline for this week's paper.