Time for Ottawa to review Canada Post's mandate

Vaughan Citizen
January 29, 2014

ISSUE: Kleinburg homeowners launch petition after being given a Woodbridge address.

Oops! We did it again. Oh, well.

That seems to be the attitude at Canada Post these days, at least when it comes to dealing with issues in Vaughan.

First, the Crown corporation refused repeated requests from the city to clean up the junk mail around its super mailboxes, forcing Vaughan to spend thousands of taxpayers’ dollars to deal with the problem.

Then, the Crown corporation announced it is scrapping door-to-door mail delivery and replacing it with about 400 super mailboxes. (You know what that means, more junk mail on the ground.)

Now, Canada Post has slapped three brand new developments in Kleinburg, home to thousands of future residents, with a Woodbridge postal code.

That will make it difficult for homeowners there to get the appropriate home and vehicle insurance rates, which are calculated, in part, using postal codes, as reported in today’s Citizen.

It could also affect the resale value of their homes.

Yet, the decision was made without any consultation or information provided.

The homeowners have taken up the fight and have launched a petition. They are also lobbying Maple/Kleinburg Councillor Marilyn Iafrate and Conservative MP Julian Fantino.

Good for them. But that’s not the way it should work.

Canada Post says it had no choice in allocating the new Kleinburg neighbourhood a Woodbridge address because the Kleinburg post office can’t handle the added growth and wouldn’t be able to service the area outside the original village for many years.

If that’s the case, then Canada Post has had plenty of time to figure out a better way of ensuring future homeowners are aware beforehand.

The majority of residents found out about it through an online forum for new homeowners after residents who moved into their subdivision discovered their mail had a Woodbridge postal code on it.

The Crown corporation should be working with the city, developers and future residents to let them know how it deals with new housing developments in the Kleinburg area, or perhaps it can figure out a way to assign a Kleinburg postal code to the area, but still deliver the mail from its Woodbridge facility.

Given the way Canada Post operates, at least in these parts, it is not surprising the corporation is hurting financially.

We think it’s time for the federal government to carry out another review of Canada Post’s mandate.

Perhaps then the Crown corporation will get the message.

BOTTOM LINE: Canada Post’s heavy-handed approach needs to be put in check by Ottawa.