What is Canada Post?
Is it a Crown corporation in business that is purely driven to make money? Or is it a service in place to provide a universal public service to all Canadians no matter what your postal code and currently at the rock-bottom price of 63 cents for a single letter?
Universal, so that a small business in Cobble Hill, for example, can compete on the same playing field as a business in Burnaby.
Canada Post is mandated to be self-sufficient and made a profit of $98 million last year, which surely they would want to invest in improving service (at least maintaining the level of service).
The notion that the sky is falling is fear-mongering. I agree that first-class letter mail is slowly declining, but revenue has increased from parcels generated from online shopping. How about looking at postal banking as a source of revenue, which is currently being done successfully in Europe?
Canada Post announced last month they want to eliminate door-to-door delivery starting in 2014. That would affect seniors and people living with disabilities the most. The placement of these community mailboxes (CMB) in front of your home will sure.ly de-value your real estate property.
I am also worried about security of the mail in these CMBs in urban areas, with the rash of break-ins to these sites in the Lower Mainland in the last year.
A lot of folks do not have a computer and rely on the mail. I still prefer to get my financial statements in the mail, along with my T4, property tax statement and especially Christmas cards.
I feel the only secure mail is real mail delivered to your door. But then what do I know? I am just a soccer mom from the suburbs, and a postal worker.
Janet Barney president, Victoria local 850 Canadian Union of Postal Workers