Canada Post ending door-to-door delivery in Gander, Grand Falls-Windsor

Canada Post announced Friday people living in Gander and Grand Falls-Windsor will be next to convert to community mailboxes from door-to-door delivery.

Residents with postal codes starting with A2A, a total of 3,360 addresses, and A1V, a total of 3,514 addresses, will be affected.

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The changeover is set for summer 2016.

Darlene Steele, Grand-Falls Windsor chapter president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, said workers knew the mailboxes were coming, but they didn't expect them to be announced so soon.

While Canada Post said staff won't be laid off, but rather cut through attrition, Steele said there's still going to be a local impact.

"It's going to be a trickle down effect, you know, if there is job loss due to these community mail boxes coming," she said.

"The economy is not going to be fed the same way that it is."

Steele said she's hopeful local union members will make it known loud and clear what they think of the plan.

"We've seen across the country, people have camped out on sites where they propose to put those community mail boxes. The word is getting out there that we are not in favour," said Steele.

"Whether we can stop it or not I can't say yes or no, but we can show them that we're not going to take it sitting down."

Knew it was coming

Gander Mayor Claude Elliott said the community mailboxes won't be new for his community.

"We're estimating close to one third of our population here don't receive door to door anyhow because all the new subdivisions it's the mail boxes that goes in," said Elliott.

"We knew eventually that it was going to spread throughout the community."

Elliott said those mailboxes haven't been the focus of much backlash, and the main issue will be determining where the new boxes go.

Canada Post said, in a statement, the change is part of the five-year initiative to convert one-third of Canadian addresses to community mailboxes.

Each of the affected residents will receive their first communication in the next few days from Canada Post regarding the change to mail services in their area.

The first will be a mail-in survey to return to Canada Post and will give residents the opportunity to express their priorities and preferences about the community mailboxes.

In a statement, Canada Post said there will be no regular full-time or part-time employees losing their jobs as a result of the switch.