Canada Post will stop stop home delivery to more than 18,000 addresses in Greater Victoria in the fall of 2015, part of the Crown corporation’s move to end all urban door-to-door mail service to five million Canadians in five years.
People in the affected areas will have to get mail from their local community mailbox.
Homeowners were sent information on the conversion process last week.
Canada Post said the move is to save costs, but no jobs will be lost.
“No regular full-time or part-time employee will lose their job as a result of the initiative,” said Daria Hill, spokesperson for Canada Post.
“As we have stated throughout this process, we will reduce our workforce largely through attrition as people leave the company.”
The corporation says Canadians mailed almost 1.2 billion fewer pieces of mail in 2013 than they did in 2006.
Victoria MP Murray Rankin said there needs to be more serious public consultations on the move to community mailboxes.
“We need to understand if there’s special arrangements that can be made for seniors and people with mobility issues,” Rankin said.
Rankin said he would like to see home delivery of mail retained as a service.
“My fundamental point is this might make sense in suburban and rural areas, but to try to put these boxes in a fully built-out settled neighbourhood like we have in most of Victoria and Oak Bay, is going to be hugely problematic.”
The addresses affected by the changes include postal codes starting with V9A, V9B and V9C.
This includes Victoria, Colwood, Saanich, Esquimalt, View Royal and Songhees First Nation.
