Ottawa (Ottawa Citizen) – Canada Post is temporarily suspending its plans to transition from door-to-door mail delivery to community mailboxes as it works out a way forward with a new Liberal government that has promised to halt the process.
The Crown Corporation announced Monday afternoon it’s working to put the program on hold “in an orderly fashion” for approximately 460,000 addresses across the country that are currently being converted to community mailboxes.
Justin Trudeau’s Liberals promised during the election campaign to “stop Stephen Harper’s plan to end door-to-door mail delivery in Canada” and to launch a review of Canada Post to ensure it provides “high-quality service at a reasonable price to Canadians, no matter where they live.”
“Canada Post is temporarily suspending future deployment of the program to convert door-to-door mail delivery to community mailboxes. We will work collaboratively with the Government of Canada to determine the best path forward given the ongoing challenges faced by the Canadian postal system,” the Crown Corporation said in a news release.
“Efforts are now underway to place the comprehensive program on hold in an orderly fashion. This involves roughly 460,000 addresses across the country which are currently in the process to be converted to community mailboxes.”
The temporary suspension of the program won’t help thousands of households in Ottawa and other communities whose mail was delivered to the community mailboxes for the first time on Monday.
All conversions planned for November and December 2015 and those announced for 2016 will be placed on hold. Those customers affected by the decision will receive a letter in the next few weeks explaining the status of their mail delivery, Canada Post said in the news release.
However, in neighbourhoods where the conversion to community mailboxes is complete, customers will continue to collect mail at the community boxes.
“This includes customers set to begin receiving their mail and parcels in their boxes in October,” the release says.
