Rural Canada to lose mail delivery service

UNSPLASH PHOTO

Rural Canadians will be hit hardest by sweeping changes to Canada Post, after the federal government moved Sept. 25 to lift a 30-year ban on closing rural post offices and ordered an end to door-to-door mail delivery nationwide.

"The bottom line is this: Canada Post is effectively insolvent," said Joël Lightbound, Minister of Government Transformation, Public Works and Procurement. “It provides an essential service to Canadians, and in particular to rural, remote and Indigenous communities, and Canadians are rightfully attached to it and want it saved. However, repeated bailouts from the federal government are not the solution.”

Nearly 4,000 rural post offices have been shielded from closure since 1994, many serving as community hubs in small towns. Ottawa says many of those areas are now suburban, but critics warn closures will disproportionately affect seniors and residents without easy access to transportation.

Alongside post office closures, roughly four million households that still receive mail at their doors will be shifted to community mailboxes—a change the government says could save almost $400-million annually.

The Conservative government under Stephen Harper had recommended ending door-to-door delivery but the former Liberal government under Justin Trudeau reinstated it. 

NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice, the party’s labour critic, said the Carney government “wants to realize the dream of Stephen Harper with community boxes everywhere and cuts for our rural populations.”

“And in the cities it’s going to be a mess,” he said, suggesting there is nowhere to put more community boxes.

Canada Post, which reported a $407-million loss in the last quarter, has 45 days to present a restructuring plan to Ottawa.

This move is disappointing for rural communities, and an area where applying a rural lens on the policy before making a decision would have limited unintended consequences.