Vancouver councillors watch Canada Post court fight over mail delivery in Hamilton
Like other municipalities, Vancouver is paying close attention to a court battle between Canada Post and the City of Hamilton in Ontario.
The fight revolves around the installation of community mail boxes as part of the Crown corporation’s plan to phase out home deliveries.
The question is how much local governments have a say on where these boxes can go.
In January last year, Vancouver council passed a motion regarding its concerns about the mail boxes.
Councillor George Affleck authored the motion, and as Canada Post and Hamilton headed to court today (May 26), he indicated that there are outstanding questions about the plan.
“We have limited land space. Where would they possibly put these? They can’t put them on the sidewalk,” Affleck told the Straight in a phone interview.
“Where do they intend to plant these things? On private lands? Are they going to purchase that land?” Affleck asked.
The councillor also noted that home deliveries are on the rise, which doesn’t square with Canada Post’s intention to stop going door to door.
Affleck maintained that one of his main worries is about how seniors and people with disabilities are able to get their mail from these boxes.
He also recalled that based on initial feedback from Canada Post, Vancouver would be “less likely to be impacted in some ways” because it has dense residential areas favourable for home deliveries.
“They indicated back then that their focus would be more rural, suburban, or areas where houses are further apart, and that Vancouver wasn’t on the top of the hit list,” he said. “But I don’t know if that has changed or not.”
In addition to accessibility for seniors and people with disabilities, Affleck’s motion also raised concerns about traffic, parking, land use, street lighting, littering, snow and ice clearance, theft, and vandalism.
The Hamilton battle is an interesting case, and it was brought up near the end of today’s council meeting by councillor Geoff Meggs.
Meggs asked staff to be ready for when Canada Post implements its plan in Vancouver.
Comments
1 Comments
Pamela
May 28, 2015 at 5:26pm
Unfortunately Canada Post doesn't care what you or I want. It's all about the almighty buck and they'll do whatever it takes to take away this service that we as all Canadians deserve. Let's just lay off 50% of our work force in Canada Post, just as was done in Abbottsford/Chillawack and Mission. As of October they have lost their door to door service. When Canada Post is making a profit (as they done every year) how can they justify this ? When letter mail is NOT declining, when parcel delivery is at an all time high, when profits are up again this quarter? Privitization is what they want and then let's hear people bitch...