Community mailboxes on hold

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers says its elated to hear Canada Post has called a pause on installing additional community mailboxes.

The surprise decision comes a week after the Trudeau Liberals were elected with a pledge to review Canada Post’s plans to move away from door-to-door delivery in urban areas.

Community mailboxes were the source of a lot of controversy in Hamilton earlier this year when the crown corporation began installing them.

According to Terry Whitehead, who spearheaded opposition at city hall, the city will now put its appeal of a judge’s decision which sided with Canada Post on hold until it gets some clarification from the incoming government.

About 460-thousand households that were to be converted by the end of the year will  keep their current mail service for now.  But Canada Post doesn’t plan to restore door-to-door delivery to areas already converted to community mailboxes.

About two-thirds of Canadian households didn’t have door-to-door service to begin with.  With mail volumes continuing to decrease, eliminating door-to-door service in urban areas was to save $500 million a year.

Canada Post said it handled nearly 1.2 billion fewer pieces of mail in 2013 than in 2006.