Calgary, Winnipeg and Ottawa first up on Canada Post’s community mailbox hit list

Attention, residents of Calgary, Winning and Ottawa: Some of you are the first targets on the Canada Post community hit list.

Several neighbourhoods in those cities and eight others were named on Thursday as the first urban neighbourhoods to be phased out of door-to-door mail delivery and into a community mail box system as soon as this fall.

In total, some 100,000 addresses in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia will make the change during this first phase of Canada Post's new urban delivery strategy. A controversial plan announced in December will do away with the costlier, yet more convenient, home delivery system as part of a five-point action strategy to cut costs at the struggling Canada Post.

"In the larger cities in this initial stage, only a few specific neighbourhoods will be affected," reads an announcement posted Thursday. "Within the affected areas, most businesses will keep delivery to the door. In the smaller municipalities, nearly all households and a higher proportion of businesses will move to community mailbox delivery."

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The complete list of affected cities and postal codes, including maps of the areas, can be found here.

Included are neighbourhoods in these cities:

• Calgary, Alta. (10,450 addresses)

• Fort McMurray, Alta. (8,450 addresses)

• Winnipeg, Man. (12,500 addresses)

• Oakville, Ont. (26,400 addresses)

• Ottawa, Ont. (7,900 addresses) Rosemère, Que. (3,350 addresses)

• Lorraine, Que. (2,550 addresses)

• Bois-des-Filion, Que. (2,750 addresses)

• Charlemagne, Que. (1,300 addresses)

• Repentigny, Que. (14,400 addresses)

• Halifax, N.S. (9,950 addresses).

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Despite nearly two-thirds of all Canadians already using community mailboxes, primarily those in small communities and rural homes, the December announcement that Canada Post would phase out door service in urban centres was greeted with frustration and protest. It didn't help matters when CEO Deepak Chopra made comments suggesting senior citizens wanted the change because it would help them get more exercise.

There now appears to be more awareness of the issues that will come with community mailboxes in city centres. The agency now says it will "need to offer additional solutions for people with mobility challenges."

For those fearing there may be a political hand at work behind the transition, that does not appear to be the case. Many of the first communities to transition over are held by Conservative members of Parliament. In fact, the first phase of the transition affects six Conservative-held communities, three NDP-held territories and two Liberal territories.

These neighbourhoods were chosen because they are located near communities that already have communal mailboxes. Canadians living in rural communities already receive mail through community depots, and the strategy appears to be to expand the system from those regions.

That seems to be a sound strategy. This would leave the cores of Canada's biggest cities to be the last to make the transition. Considering most of the opposition comes from those region, it defers conflict and takes the wind out of any protests.

Inevitably, we will all have to get used to a Canada without home mail delivery. For 11 Canadian cities, that reality is coming sooner, rather than later.

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