Canada Post's community mailboxes a headache for some Quebecers
Charlemagne, Repentigny, Bois-des-Filion, Rosemère and Lorraine first Quebec communities to lose home delivery
The installation of Canada Post’s community mailboxes has not gone as smoothly as some Quebec residents had hoped.
Monday marks the first day of community box mail delivery for 74,000 addresses in 10 communities across Canada, including five on Montreal’s North Shore.
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Community mailboxes were installed in Charlemagne, Repentigny, Bois-des-Filion, Rosemère and Lorraine.
However, it hasn’t been without hiccups.
One Daybreak listener in Repentigny was given a key that opened three neighbours’ mailboxes, but not his own.
In Bois-des-Filion, Mayor Paul Larocque said mailbox installers have damaged some of the town’s property in their haste to set up the boxes.
"We had to deal with five or six different subcontractors that worked for Canada Post — in a small municipality of four square kilometres. They were doing work in some places that wasn’t planned," Larocque said.
Larocque told Daybreak host Mike Finnerty that a hole was mistakenly dug, then filled when residents complained. Workers then dug a hole again in the same place.
He also said a curb was cut in the wrong place.
'Time is not on our side'
Canada Post spokeswoman Anik Losier admitted the mail delivery corporation has been working perhaps too hastily to complete the project to switch five million addresses over to community mailboxes.
It’s about ensuring long-term future of the postal service.- Anik Losier, Canada Post spokeswoman
She said there have been a lot of last-minute changes made to the work on Montreal’s North Shore, where up to 50 per cent of the community mailbox sites have been moved during the planning process.
"This is a massive undertaking for everyone involved," Losier said. "Time is not on our side."
She said the Crown corporation has five years to move five million Canadians from door-to-door delivery to community mailboxes.
She said this step alone would save Canada Post $500 million a year once all the addresses have been switched over.
"It’s about ensuring long-term future of the postal service," Losier said.
Losier assured the Bois-des-Filion mayor that Canada Post would fix and pay for any work done in error.