Canadian Postal Service Charter

For those that missed it the Government has just established the Canadian Postal Service Charter to describe its expectations regarding Canada Post’s service standards and related activities in providing services in Canada. For rural residents it’s a good news bad news sort of thing, on universal service they say this:-

“Canada Post will maintain a postal system that allows individuals and businesses in Canada to send and receive mail within Canada and between Canada and elsewhere. Canada Post will provide a service for the collection, transmission and delivery of letters, parcels and publications.”

Regarding rural services specifically they say this:-

“The provision of postal services to rural regions of the country is an integral part of Canada Post’s universal service.”

Which does not mean that rural DELIVERY will not be discontinued or reduced but can mean that MOST will have a postal outlet within a 15 minute drive as per this:-

“Canada Post will provide retail postal outlets, including both corporate post offices and private dealer operated outlets which are conveniently located and operated, so that: 98 percent of consumers will have a postal outlet within 15 km; 88% within 5km and 78% within 2.5km.”

Just to put this in perspective with aprox 80% of our population being urban dwellers the removal of ALL rural Post Offices would not substantially change these percentages!
However the good new is:- “The moratorium on the closure of rural post offices is maintained.”

However that statement is modified by this! “ Situations affecting Canada Post personnel (e.g., retirement, illness, death, etc.) or Canada Post infrastructure (e.g., fire or termination of lease, etc.) may, nevertheless, affect the ongoing operation of a post office.”

And then there is this:- “At least one month before deciding to permanently close, move or amalgamate corporate post offices, Canada Post will meet with affected customers and communities to jointly explore options and find practical solutions that address customer concerns.”

Wow, a whole month to try and change their mind that’s real generous!

As I said it’s a good news, bad news kinda thing. The moratorium on the closure of rural post offices is maintained, sort off, maybe, perhaps, and rural delivery is not even mentioned! Not exactly what I was hoping for. (It also seems that as a cost cutting measure the government has done away with spell check on their word processors as there were multiple spelling / typo errors in the PDF document!)

All in all a rather meaningless document so typical of government!