Rural home delivery not on Canada Post chopping block

Jeff Green | Feb 02, 2014

Canada Post spokesman John Caines said last week that home delivery is not on the chopping block in rural Canada.

Although the embattled company will begin phasing out home delivery next month in urban and suburban areas, Caines said that a process of re-evaluating rural addresses was undertaken by the company a couple of years ago and no further changes are envisioned at this time.

He confirmed that changes in the hours at three post offices in Frontenac and western Lanark County - Godfrey, Parham and Maberly - are under consideration but said the specific changes as well as their implementation date are still up in the air.

“We have been looking at our retail outlets, based on foot traffic, and we are looking to tailor our hours to when people use our services most. We have been in consultation with the union, as part of our collective bargaining agreement, about the hours at those locations, but no conclusions have been made, and there is no time frame on it.”

When asked if Saturday closing would form part of the changes to the three offices, Caines said, “Saturday is not a good day for us in terms of customer traffic. No business stays open during times when customers do not use their service.”

Canada Post is making changes to its service delivery model in a effort to reverse a trend, brought on by the widespread changes in communications technology in recent years, which are projected to result in $1 billion yearly losses for the Crown corporation by the year 2020.

The corporation turned a profit for 16 consecutive years until 2010, a year in which it turned a net profit of $314 million. However, in 2011 the company reported a net loss of $188 million.

It returned to profitability in 2012 to the tune of $127 million, but that was done, according to the company’s annual report for the year, “largely due to reductions in the future costs of sick leave and post-retirement health benefits ... a result of reaching new collective agreements with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.” That agreement only came about after a bitter strike in June of 2012 that was ended by back-to-work legislation.

In 2013 Canada Post's financial results plummeted sharply, with losses in excess of $100 million in the third quarter alone.

Wholesale changes in its delivery model, including a sharp increase in stamp prices and an end to home delivery in urban Canada, were announced late in the year.

(Publisher’s note – In all likelihood, this copy of the Frontenac News was delivered to your mailbox, directly to your home, at a community box, or at your local post office box, by Canada Post. We have no plans to alter that method of delivery, which remains the most effective option we have found for delivery in our distribution area. Canada Post has indicated that there will be little if any change in service levels that would affect the timely delivery of the Frontenac News to the 9,219 households that receive our newspaper through the mail.)