Strong support to keep door-to-door delivery

Even though it was nice out weather wise, people packed St. Dominique’s Hall Wednesday night, all with the same message to Canada Post.

“Let’s keep door-to-door mail delivery.”

Timmins-James Bay MP Charlie Angus joined Mayor Steve Black and representatives from the Canadian Postal Workers Union to hear out residents, and deliver information at the same time.

Angus told the crowd he received hundreds upon hundreds of emails, and recalled a key moment that really hit home.

He says he came into work in Ottawa one morning, and had a stack of mail.  All of it from Timmins residents…all on the issue of Canada Post.

Wednesday, he says you could feel the energy in the room.

“This is an issue that people in Timmins feel passionate about,” he said, “I think the government made a huge mistake.”

Mayor Black echoed those sentiments.

“This is a growing campaign,” Angus said.

“Our first meeting, we had about 50 people.  We had over 170 tonight.  People are taking the signs out, it’s a growing awareness.  A lot of people aren’t thinking off the top of their head about their mail so this was a good organizing night.”

Many voiced their displeasure over what would happen if these community mailboxes took over the city.  One was about snow removal, and what would happen down the line.

Mayor Black says Canada Post can overrule something passed at the city level, so even though promises of the government clearing snow away from the mailboxes were made, it could be a different story 10 years down the line when the company looks to save even more money.

Black is also calling on residents to get lawn signs, and make your voices heard at the provincial and federal levels.

He cited the “CAA’s Worst Roads Campaign” earlier this year, where people came out and voted for the Connecting Link to be on that top 10 list.  Algonquin West and East topped the list in the province, with Riverside Drive not far behind.

“That generated provincial and national coverage, which then gives us another tool to carry out the discussion,” Black added.

He says when politicians and executives hear messages from the residents, rather than the elected officials, the message becomes much stronger.

Angus adds other cities in the North need to be on board and aware, so “it’s not just Timmins fighting alone but we’re fighting for the Northeast and then we’ll work with the Northwest.”

Another topic that came up is the new age of delivering mail and letters.  From email, to Skype, to Facebook, Twitter and other forms of social media, Angus say the days of his grandmother “writing letters by hand to her sisters back home in Scotland, those days are done.”

He says postal service is taking off with parcel delivery.

“That’s how you run a business, you innovate,” Angus says, “You say one part of our business is going down, another is going up but what we’re seeing with Canada Post executives is it’s an idealogical opposition to public service.  They want to privatize it.  The best way to privatize a public service is to break it.”

In the end, Angus said it best.

“You got the Gold standard for mail delivery, let’s keep it.”

Over 10,000 addresses in Timmins are expected to feel the cuts when they come into effect by summer 2016.