Stephen Harper taking away door to door postal service

Signals.Cpl · October 21, 2014

That's not true at all. You actually think everyone living in a single-family dwelling is capable of going to the mailbox every day or several times a week? The issue is being brought to court partially on behalf of people with disabilities and the elderly. You really can't fathom that there are some people who would have an incredibly difficult time getting to and from a community mailbox several times a week, particularly in the freezing cold ice and snow during winter or suffocating humidity of mid summer? You don't understand at all how this could be a problem for those people?

And if it is then Canada Post can provide to their Door delivery 3 days a week and the problem is solved.

Boges · October 21, 2014

And if it is then Canada Post can provide to their Door delivery 3 days a week and the problem is solved.

I wouldn't oppose this solution but I suspect the savings wouldn't be there. You can't expect a Mail-person to work part-time, they'd have to take on 2 routes and perhaps do them on alternative days.

There's no reason mail needs to be delivered 5 days a week. It's shocking that the USA does it for 6 days.

Signals.Cpl · October 21, 2014

I wouldn't oppose this solution but I suspect the savings wouldn't be there. You can't expect a Mail-person to work part-time, they'd have to take on 2 routes and perhaps do them on alternative days.

There's no reason mail needs to be delivered 5 days a week. It's shocking that the USA does it for 6 days.

In my last building the mailman spend about 10-15 min sorting out the mail in to the mailboxes and it was a building with around 120-140 apartments, then he can spend about 20min/day 3 days a week delivering to those who are marked for door delivery and chances are that unless it is a retirement community there wouldn't be that many homes of retirees and disabled.

cybercoma · October 21, 2014

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/canada-post-swings-to-profit-but-red-ink-looms/article11327974/

Oh? How about that return to profitability in 2014 too?

Bryan · October 21, 2014

I've already mentioned food in my last posts. Medication can be refilled and delivered by Shoppers. Otherwise, most doctors' offices have pharmacies attached or nearby, so on the few occasions that they have to get to a doctor's office, usually with the help of family or personal support workers, they can have their prescriptions filled then. And as I've already mentioned, even the elderly and people with disabilities, go to the doctor a lot less often than they would need to check their mail. Some doctors, believe it or not, still go to patients' homes when they have mobility issues. I find it really puzzling that a lot of you can't see that it takes major effort for some people to get out of the house and go to the places they need to go. Yet, Harper wants to force these people to travel every day for their mail.

What I hear you saying is there are lots of opportunities for private enterprise to fill in the gaps for those with specific needs.

cybercoma · October 21, 2014

I didn't say it wasn't profitable. But you're ignoring reality of snail mail. It's horse and buggy, and should be phased out to the central box system. It's a no brainer.

It should just be changed because it's old. No other reason?

So with absolutely no good reason, you want to change the system in a way that might be extremely hard on some people, dangerous even.

Makes a lot of sense.

cybercoma · October 21, 2014

So if Canada Post is profitable we should leave it at that? So when the government of Canada gets a surplus we stop looking for ways to save money?

"Sorry, grandma. I don't care about your aching joints. Canada Post is a business and it needs to make more money!"

cybercoma · October 21, 2014

So what do all of these people who are part of the 66% without home mail delivery do now?

What about them? How many of those people are in apartments or condos or retirement homes? Get back to me with that.

Edited October 21, 2014 by cybercoma

Boges · October 21, 2014

The writing is already on the wall. Mail delivery is plummeting. These are pro-active measures.

Signals.Cpl · October 21, 2014

"Sorry, grandma. I don't care about your aching joints. Canada Post is a business and it needs to make more money!"

Ok you are right… we should keep this program because of the elderly and disabled. Canada post has to deliver to 100% of the people because 10% of the people may not be able to get to their mailboxes.

Shady · October 21, 2014

The same arguments were made when Saturday mail delivery was ended.

Boges · October 21, 2014

"Sorry, grandma. I don't care about your aching joints. Canada Post is a business and it needs to make more money!"

It would be interesting to find out how many elderly single people decide they want to live in a single family home without any infrastructure to help pick up the mail. I suspect most live in an apartment.

Shady · October 21, 2014

"Sorry, grandma. I don't care about your aching joints. Canada Post is a business and it needs to make more money!"

Yep, we need to make sacfifices in order for said aching joints to be treated for free.

overthere · October 21, 2014

Canada Post has been a semi-independent Crown agency since 1981(PM Pierre Trudeau), they were created with the mandate of improving reliability of service and operating without govt subsidy. The conversion to Crown Agency came after decades of nasty strikes and poor service. They were given some tools to do this, the best of which was the first class mail monopoly. They were also given an extensive network of processing plants.

CPC protects its turf from govt interference zealously, and they know the only way to maintain the ability to act as a business comes if they stay at or near in the black. Their corporate strategy for years has not been on delivering mail, it has been on distributing mail. They have invested many millions in modern, suburban processing plants- effectively mail factories. They have been selling their old school downtown facilities.

But...they face a huge threat for their biggest profit maker: first class mail. Its a threat they probably cannot defeat- technology, first faxes, now the Internet are hurting them badly. Nobody sends letters to Aunt Mabel anymore, not just personal letters but bills.

Many mail intensive companies- like utilities and credit card companies- tried everything to avoid sticking an expensive stamp on their mass monthly mailings and bypass the monopoly. All failed in court challenges. . CPC had the weight of the legislated monopoly on their side, and it has saved their bacon for a long time. Until the Internet. Now companies not only insist on sending customers bills electronically, they charge a fee for mailing it. The federal govt itself got in on that. They closed several cheque printing plants across Canada, the ones that printed CPP, OAS, baby bonus and tax refund cheques by the millions. Almost all via Internet now.

The monopoly still exists, but it won't get CPC out of this fiscal dilemma. Times have changed irrevocably.

Boges · October 21, 2014

The CRA has said they'll stop sending my refund cheque by mail in the coming years too.

Army Guy · October 21, 2014

I've already mentioned food in my last posts. Medication can be refilled and delivered by Shoppers. Otherwise, most doctors' offices have pharmacies attached or nearby, so on the few occasions that they have to get to a doctor's office, usually with the help of family or personal support workers, they can have their prescriptions filled then. And as I've already mentioned, even the elderly and people with disabilities, go to the doctor a lot less often than they would need to check their mail. Some doctors, believe it or not, still go to patients' homes when they have mobility issues. I find it really puzzling that a lot of you can't see that it takes major effort for some people to get out of the house and go to the places they need to go. Yet, Harper wants to force these people to travel every day for their mail.

Your talking like this problem can not be solved, your also talking like these cases rank in the millions, are we to keep a service becasue a few in each mail district. that don't have transportion, that don't have freinds or family that could pick up the mail, that can't pay a cab to go get it, that could not pay a child to preform this service......I do get it it takes some effort to get the mail. but come on is this problem any different than the ones they already face day to day.

Boges · October 21, 2014

I think some motivated young people could make some good money delivering mail to people that don't want to go to community boxes.

Edited October 21, 2014 by Boges

overthere · October 21, 2014

I think some motivated young people could make some good money delivering mail to people that don't want to go to community boxes.

Yes there must be thousands of examples of businesses already existing in Canada to serve the 2/3 or the population who have not had household service since 1985.

Unless perhaps those millions of homes have no elderly or disabled people living in them. Are all the old/disabled in pre -1985 ghettos in Canada?

Shady · October 21, 2014

The CRA has said they'll stop sending my refund cheque by mail in the coming years too.

Yep. And CRA has completely closed it's offices to the public, as of last year. Now you have to go online or sit on the phone to get service.

Edited October 21, 2014 by Shady

cybercoma · October 21, 2014

Your talking like this problem can not be solved, your also talking like these cases rank in the millions

I didn't say either of those things. You're reading that into my posts. The arguments people have put forward is that this is a necessary measure. They haven't shown that it's necessary, especially considering Canada Post has been profitable in all but 2 years over the last 15 and those years aren't even consecutively the last two. I'm saying it's an unnecessary measure that would cause harm to some individuals for whom it might be difficult, impossible, or dangerous to travel to a community mailbox. Where the measure is not necessary to begin with, why would you cause harm to some people doing something completely unnecessary?

You know what this is? It's playing to the anti-union conservative base, just like the cuts to the public service that Argus was talking about earlier. It plays to the dim-witted race-to-the-bottom mentality that these people have.

cybercoma · October 21, 2014

Yep. And CRA has completely closed it's offices to the public, as of last year. Now you have to go online or sit on the phone to get service.

Except that's not true. You can go through Service Canada offices for CRA issues. So it's a bit of a stretch to say, "completely closed it's [sic] offices."

Smallc · October 21, 2014

The projections for the post office are not good. That's why this was done. The post office, in order to maintain public support, must remain publicly viable.

cybercoma · October 21, 2014

Great. The projections are not good. Manage the business better without making it difficult or impossible for some people to get their mail. There's been a massive swing in profitability when they raised the price of stamps. Cutting door-to-door service is unnecessary.

Boges · October 21, 2014

You know what this is? It's playing to the anti-union conservative base, just like the cuts to the public service that Argus was talking about earlier. It plays to the dim-witted race-to-the-bottom mentality that these people have.

Ahhhh so it is about the jobs and not the usefulness of the service. Gotcha!

Signals.Cpl · October 21, 2014

I didn't say either of those things. You're reading that into my posts. The arguments people have put forward is that this is a necessary measure. They haven't shown that it's necessary, especially considering Canada Post has been profitable in all but 2 years over the last 15 and those years aren't even consecutively the last two. I'm saying it's an unnecessary measure that would cause harm to some individuals for whom it might be difficult, impossible, or dangerous to travel to a community mailbox. Where the measure is not necessary to begin with, why would you cause harm to some people doing something completely unnecessary?

You know what this is? It's playing to the anti-union conservative base, just like the cuts to the public service that Argus was talking about earlier. It plays to the dim-witted race-to-the-bottom mentality that these people have.

And if we can negate the hardship those individuals would face? Then what? Tell me, aside from the disabled/elderly question what other issues do you have?