If your dog goes crazy every time the mail delivery person shows up at your door, you may be relieved to know that it soon may no longer be a problem.
But beyond that, a lot of people are uncertain what the pending demise of door-to-door mail delivery means for them.
Canada Post said on Monday that it’s moving ahead with a transformation plan that includes a transition to community mailboxes, eventually ending home delivery. It’s something Public Services and Procurement Canada directed last year — as it faces what’s been called an “existential” crisis and faltering finances.
Toronto city Coun. Josh Matlow understands Canada Post needs to adapt. But he, like many Canadians, has plenty of questions about the switch to community mailboxes and concerns “about everything from beauty and design to safety and accessibility.”
Here are answers to some of the questions you might have about the the future of mail delivery in Canada.
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How soon could this happen?
In a statement to CBC News, Canada Post says it’s beginning to take the “initial steps” of its plan, first consulting with the bargaining agents for its unionized workers, represented by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), and then with municipal officials and other stakeholders.
The Crown corporation will also have to collaborate with the federal government to eventually amend the Canadian Postal Service Charter, which currently states that it “will deliver to every address in Canada,” including “to the door.”
Currently, about four million addresses still have mail delivered to the door.
Joël Lightbound, minister of Government Transformation, Public Works and Procurement, said last fall that the process to eliminate most door-to-door service would take about nine years, with most of it expected to be completed in the first four.
Where will mailboxes go in big cities?
There’s a lot of uncertainty about how Canada Post will go about installing community mailboxes in big cities. Urban planners who spoke with CBC News suspect that sidewalks will be a likely option.
But not an ideal one.
“Sidewalks are already overcrowded with a lot of urban furniture, which reduces the space for flows,” said Richard Shearmur, a professor at the school of urban planning at McGill University in Montreal.
That includes waste receptacles, bus shelters, lampposts and advertising boards — and that’s not even factoring in all the people, strollers and mobility devices moving about and coming in and out of buildings.
Other options, he says, could include placing the community mailboxes at the edges of city parks or taking up curbside parking spaces, something Shearmur says would require some sort of protective barrier to ensure safety.
He says it will ultimately depend on the size of the installations and how many boxes will be needed to serve a neighbourhood.
But he points out that Canada Post doesn’t need permission from municipal governments to install community mailboxes on city property.
For that reason, and others, Matlow put forward a motion last fall — which was approved — to request Canada Post work with the City of Toronto to address “everything from safety, accessibility to the aesthetic impacts of these proposed mailboxes.”
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Will parcels be delivered to community mailboxes?
Community mailboxes generally have designated compartments for larger envelopes and small packages.
In an email to CBC, Canada Post said “most parcels” will fit in a customer’s locked compartment or one of the secured parcel boxes (with a key to access it left in the addressee’s individual mailbox).
Larger items, which already require a signature, will still be delivered to a customer’s door or be held for pick-up at a Canada Post office or depot.
Are there safety and accessibility concerns?
Carrie Mitchell, an associate professor of urban planning at the University of Waterloo, says it would be no problem for her to walk a few hundred metres to a community mailbox, but that’s not the case for seniors and other people with mobility issues.
In winter weather, snowbanks and ice make sidewalks even more difficult to navigate and snow clearance can take time, especially after severe storms.
She says parts of some cities, especially older neighbourhoods and rural areas, may not even have sidewalks on some stretches of road.
“So now you’re forcing people either to walk onto the road or to drive to the community mailbox,” she said.
Additionally, she says cars could pull over onto shoulders and into bike lanes to access mailboxes, which could put cyclists and people riding scooters at risk.
For people who can’t physically get to community mailboxes, Canada Post does offer weekly home delivery. But customers must provide supporting documents in order to be approved for the service.
There are also other accommodations or enhancements available to help people with disabilities access their community mailbox.
Ottawa has given Canada Post the go ahead to end home deliveries. While many people living in suburban areas already get their mail from community boxes, they’re less common for those living in densely populated urban areas.
What about rural communities?
Shearmur says that in suburban parts of Canada, it may only take about five minutes to walk or drive to a community mailbox.
But he says that won’t be the case for areas where homes are less concentrated and where mail is delivered to boxes at the edge of a resident’s property, along the adjacent road.
While centralized community mailboxes may reduce driving time and fuel costs for Canada Post, he says they will surely increase both for rural residents trying to get their mail.
Shearmur says Canada Post will also need to invest in having a space where people can safely pull off the road and not just onto a shoulder as other vehicles zip by.
How will we deal with junk mail?
In many Canadian households, flyers often end up going directly into the trash or recycling bin.
Matlow is concerned people may just dump the stacks of paper advertisements and coupons on the ground next to the community mailboxes. He wants a plan to deal with that.
Although Canada Post says on its website that it will clean up litter, it may be up to the public to report it first.
There is also the option to stop receiving certain unaddressed items, including junk mail, by simply placing a note on or inside your mailbox, where the delivery person can see it.
Can ending door-to-door mail delivery help solve Canada Post’s financial catastrophe? That’s part of the federal government’s proposed solution to curb daily losses in the millions of dollars, but the union has swiftly responded with a nationwide postal worker strike. Andrew Chang explains how Canada Post’s greatest strength may now be its greatest weakness — and how a viable path forward could unfold.
Images provided by Getty Images, The Canadian Press and Reuters.
