NDP MPs hold 'Save Canada Post' town hall in Vancouver

Two B.C. MPs will be taking the message to Ottawa this week that their constituents feel home mail delivery is a vital service, and that they are frustrated with planned changes to Canada Post.

The postal service says it is tackling a projected $1B dollar deficit, and will be installing new community mailboxes to replace home delivery over the next five years in a bid to cut costs.

• Canada Post box locations revealed in delivery cutback program

On Saturday, NDP MPs Libby Davies and Don Davies hosted a town hall meeting in East Vancouver for people to share their concerns with the plan.

Daisy Phillips, one of around 100 local residents who attended, said she was worried new community mailboxes will be too difficult for her to access.

"I have a heart condition and everything, and pacemaker, I can't be travelling all over. I have a hard enough time already getting around."

Others at the forum said Canada Post should innovate and find ways to grow its business instead of cutting back on services. 

MP for Vancouver Kingsway Don Davies said an overwhelming majority of residents he encountered feel the same — and have questions about accessibility in addition to concerns over mailbox break-ins.

"I would say 90 per cent of the people I hear from are extremely concerned about ending of this service from a number of perspectives," Davies said.

Vancouver City Coun. Geoff Meggs said municipal governments like his are also concerned about finding sidewalk and parking space to accommodate super-boxes in urban areas.

"We started from the urban planning standpoint and asked ourselves how neighbourhoods that were built when when home delivery was taken for granted would somehow be retrofitted for huge community mailboxes where parking is already an issue, [and] where traffic would be generated," he said.