As Canada Post embarks on its massive restructuring — including the end of home delivery — former Montreal mayor Denis Coderre has some advice for the Crown corporation: Get the cities on board, or it won’t work.
In 2015, then-mayor Coderre took a jackhammer to the concrete foundation for a community mailbox placed in a city park in Canada Post’s first steps toward ending home delivery.
That drive was subsequently brought to a screeching halt by the election of Justin Trudeau.
Now, with Canada Post hemorrhaging a billion dollars a year, Ottawa has given the Crown corporation the green light to start again.
To avoid a repeat of his publicity stunt, Coderre says Canada Post needs to do a better job of reaching out to cities and mayors this time around.
“You have no choice but to deal with mayors,” Coderre said. “If you don’t have the mayors on your side, there’s nothing … that will work.”
Coderre said he was blindsided in 2015 after being assured that Canada Post wouldn’t make any moves without informing him.
“They said ‘don’t worry, Mr. Mayor, we’re going to work together,’ then during a press conference somebody told me that they put the concrete in and that we won’t have a choice,” said Coderre. “I mean, it was in a park, for God’s sake.”
Traffic flow and safety are other factors Coderre was concerned about — and still would be, if he were in office.
“Are people going to just stop in the bike lanes? This is stuff they need to think about,” Coderre added.
While she’s not breaking out a jackhammer yet, Toronto mayor Olivia Chow has concerns about community mailboxes, their impact on seniors, accessibility and also on postal workers.
“The Mayor is concerned about the potential impacts of this proposal, particularly given Toronto’s growing population of seniors and the number of residents in older neighbourhoods who rely on accessible home delivery,” Chow spokesperson, Braman Thillainathan, said in an emailed statement. “She is also concerned about the effect this will have on workers.”
With no firm details yet, it’s too early for Chow to give Canada Post’s plan the thumbs up, Thillainathan added.
“We would need to see a clear plan,” Thillainathan said, “including how accessibility, site selection, and community impacts will be addressed, before providing further comment.”
While Chow’s reluctant to comment further without details, the union representing 55,000 postal workers is furious.
In a bulletin on the Canadian Union of Postal Workers’ website earlier this week, CUPW national president Jan Simpson blasted Canada Post for not sharing more details.
“It has now been over four months since this implementation plan was shared with the Government,” Simpson wrote, “yet it has still not been disclosed to postal workers — despite our repeated requests to review it.”
On Monday Canada Post said that it was beginning consultations with its unions, and would start reaching out to municipalities to discuss its plans, including the timing and process for deciding where to put community mailboxes.
In an email, Canada Post spokesperson Jon Hamilton said the Crown corporation will keep all stakeholders — including municipalities — in the loop.
“Our approach is built to ensure we engage and inform key stakeholders and keep Canadians informed of the changes,” Hamilton said, adding that Canada Post has simplified its program allowing people who need home delivery because of mobility reasons to apply for an exemption.
While not referring directly to Coderre’s jackhammer stunt, Hamilton said the Crown corporation has learned some lessons.
“We have experience converting over 800,000 addresses across the country, and our approach incorporates all learnings to ensure we proceed in a thoughtful manner,” Hamilton added.
Hamilton also noted that one of the guiding principles of Canada Post’s plan is to proceed “thoughtfully,” while acknowledging that it needs to “move with urgency.”
York University labour studies professor Steven Tufts, expects “urgency” will likely dominate given Canada Post’s financial woes.
“I think they’re getting ready to do this much faster than we thought they might,” said Tufts. “I’m not saying it’s going to be overnight. But the idea it’s going to be a decade long project isn’t realistic, given the savings they need to achieve.”
While there’s an upfront cost to buying and installing community mailboxes, it costs $157 a year per household to deliver to them, according to Canada Post. For the 24 per cent of Canadian households still receiving home delivery, the cost is $279 per household.
McMaster University labour studies professor Stephanie Ross says it isn’t feasible to get such a major infrastructure project done so quickly, given the sheer volume involved.
“It’s really the biggest urban centres where it’s door-to-door delivery. That means it’s a volume of installing them that’s a lot bigger,” said Ross. “I can’t imagine it taking less than a year, and maybe longer in some places.”
As for whether the restructuring can be stopped, Ross doesn’t see a groundswell of public support to preserve home delivery or prevent closure of some rural post offices this time around, unlike 11 years ago.
Ross is concerned about the disappearance of a public service and infrastructure, even if it’s not as vital as it once was. Repurposing the post offices, and other elements of Canada Post, should be on the table, Ross said.
“That doesn’t seem to be anywhere on the agenda for management or the current government. And I think that’s a lost opportunity.”
