Canadian City opposing Canada Post’s switch to community mailboxes

Canada Post is facing a backlash from the City of Hamilton, Ontario, against its plans to replace doorstep mail delivery services with community mailboxes. A report from Council officials called on the city’s mayor to write to government ministers to oppose the move, and demand that Canada Post suspend the introduction of community mailboxes.

Canada Post has been busy replacing doorstep delivery services, where they still exist, with centralised community mailboxes across Canada over the next five years. The programme comes within a strategy issued by the state-owned company in December 2013, which was designed to cut operating costs in the light of declining mail volumes.

Canada’s mail volumes fell by 5.1% year-on-year in the first three quarters of 2014.

Proposals for the city of Hamilton, which has a population of around half a million, already call for more than 1,000 new community mailbox locations to be installed from spring 2015. City officials believe the number could reach 4,000 to cover the whole city.

The report from City’s Council warned that the new mailboxes would require “significant” financial and staffing resources from the City for planning and permitting, and for maintaining the mailboxes. It also claimed that Canada Post had not carried out “meaningful” consultation with the City or residents regarding the conversion of doorstep delivery.

Analysis by city officials, based on similar installations by utilities, claimed that it would cost the City about $522 per location to carry out the reviews and permitting for the new community mailboxes. The report said Canada Post had offered to compensate the Council in the order of $50 per location.

The report said what Canada Post had described as a consultation over the changes to mail services was more like a communication to stakeholders about what is to be done.

Canada Post

Canada Post was due to meet with the Council this week to discuss the report. In a letter to the Council ahead of the meeting, municipal engagement manager Andy Paterson said Canada Post took responsibility for all installation and maintenance costs related to community mailboxes, and has done since they were first introduced three decades ago.

He said: “That includes siting, site preparation such as curb cuts to ensure access, installation and ongoing maintenance including snow clearing and any graffiti-removal if required. We do everything possible to reduce incremental costs to the municipality and offer $50 per site to help offset any potential costs converting existing neighborhoods. We also install the boxes using existing street lighting and sidewalks where feasible.”

Paterson added that Canada Post had been working with municipalities for decades to install many thousands of community mailboxes.

It is believed that about a two thirds of Canadian addresses already use some form of centralised or community mailbox.

Canada Post has said it believes switching the remaining third of Canadian homes to community mailboxes will save it $400m-$500m a year after the five-year process is complete. Around 900,000 addresses are expected to be converted in 2015 alone nationwide.

In a statement to the media, responding to the Hamilton Council report, Canada Post said eliminating doorstep delivery was needed to prevent the postal service becoming a “drain on taxpayers”.

The Crown Corporation said: “The simple reality is that the world is changing and so are the demands of Canadians. The amount of mail sent declines every year. We need to respond to protect service for all Canadians and avoid becoming a drain on taxpayers. In Hamilton, more than 34,000 addresses already use a community mailbox and have done so for years. We would like to work together with the municipality as we have in the past to ensure the best outcome for the people we both serve.”