Canada Post accused of slow service

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The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) says recent mail delivery delays are causing customer service for mail delivery to decrease in the Comox Valley.

Part of the Postal Charter says that mail must be delivered five days a week to all customers, but in some parts of the Comox Valley mail delivery has been delayed for up to two consecutive days due to inadequate staffing levels, according to Nancy Dodsworth, Courtenay local president of CUPW.

According to CUPW, Canada Post agreed to call in temporary employees, offer overtime to CUPW members, or use any other means to ensure the mail is delivered daily on business days, but “Canada Post has unilaterally opted out” of these provisions of their collective agreement.

“I cannot understand why CPC is purposely delaying our customers’ mail; we have provisions in our collective agreement to ensure that all mail delivery routes are delivered daily,” said Dodsworth in a news release.

Colleen Frick, Canada Post director of communications, says they are meeting their mail delivery standards 96 per cent of the time, as of June this year.

According to these delivery standards, mail will be delivered within a certain number of days from sending, depending where in Canada it was sent from. Frick also says a reason for lower staffing levels is that letter mail volumes are “down drastically,” because people are not using the system as much anymore, citing the rising popularity of e-mail and online bank statements as examples.

“We’re monitoring mail volumes very closely to ensure that our staffing levels will continue to meet mail volumes,” said Frick. “We wouldn’t do anything operationally to compromise good customer service.”