Canada Post 'inventing rules' to bring in community mailboxes, says Milton man

Canada Post is making up rules to cancel door-to-door delivery in some neighbourhoods despite an announcement that it was suspending the program to convert communities to super mailboxes after the last federal election, says a Milton man.

"They just do whatever they please," said Jim Dixon, an IT consultant who lives in the area. 

Three months ago, Dixon said he received a notice from Canada Post saying that following an evaluation, the Crown corporation planned to switch over to community mailboxes in his neighbourhood in Milton for safety reasons.

Dixon complained to the federal government, Canada Post and Minister of Public Services and Procurement Judy Foote's office. Last week, his new community mailbox key was delivered to him.

"I find this rather disappointing," Dixon said. "I mean one of the reasons I voted for the federal Liberal government was the promise to stop this. They promised to at least look into it and from what I can tell, they're just carrying right on doing it."

Conversion program suspended

The federal Liberals had promised to put a moratorium on phasing out door-to-door mail delivery if they came into power in the last election. The suspension went into effect in October 2015.

However, the government missed its promised spring deadline to make a decision about the future of home delivery. It says it's reviewing two reports, one from a task force it created that produced a discussion paper in September 2016 and a report from the House of Commons government operations committee. It will announce a decision by the end of the year.

• Deadline for decision on Canada Post home delivery missed as Liberals ponder way forward

• Canada Post violating Liberal election promise, Edmonton woman says

'A safety issue'

In a statement to CBC News, Canada Post said it has not converted door-to-door customer service to community mailboxes since the moratorium in the fall of 2015.  It said since 2007 it has been doing scientific reviews of all rural mailboxes to ensure safety of its mail carriers and customers. 

"Earlier this year, some traffic safety issues surrounding mail delivery were raised on Esquesing Line. Canada Post conducted a review of the location of the mailboxes on this road and identified that they are potentially dangerous for our delivery agents, residents of the community and the motoring public," said Darcia Kmet, a media relations spokesperson for Canada Post, in the statement.

Dixon says traffic likely has increased in his neighbourhood, but not enough to cause any problems for door-to-door delivery.

"I don't really buy that," he said. "They're just inventing excuses to carry on with their policy. I mean the house has been here for 40 years. I don't recall hearing of any incident. The neighbours certainly don't recall hearing of any incident or any issues of postal delivery."

Diane Cox has lived on Esquesing Line for eight years. The 69-year-old retiree, who walks with a cane, said her new community mailbox hasn't made it safer for her.

She says she now has to drive two kilometres to get her mail. The box isn't on level ground so she's worried she'll slip and fall in winter and she's not tall enough to reach her mailbox.

"If I swing my door open on my car I'm going to be impeding traffic," said Cox. "I understand we have to progress in this world, but don't give us something worse than what's out there."