I’m far from a Conservative supporter, but the move to community boxes was the right decision. Frankly, I was looking forward to having my mail in a locked box, and not just sitting outside my home.

Of course they’re thrilled. More brethren and sistren to deliver Dominos coupons, Northland Dodge ads and other assorted crap at juicy public sector union wages.

In case you haven’t noticed the world (yes, even Prince George) is quickly moving to an electronic, paperless communication system. You pay your bills on-line, you send and receive electronic mail on-line, you look up phone numbers on-line, etc. You can even find crappy Dominos coupons and Northland Dodge ads on-line, if you care to.

In my view it’s a huge waste of taxpayer dollars to have armies of Canada Post workers walking around stuffing peoples’ mailboxes with junk. At least the community mailbox system puts all the junk in one place. A postal worker drives up, opens the big box, stuffs all the crappy fliers into the individual little boxes and calls it a day.

I haven’t had home delivery for well over 20 years and have managed to survive!

This decision has nothing to do with the economics of the matter. Justin couldn’t care less about the taxes that we pay! This is just the start of payback to the Unions that supported his campaign.

A very interesting read was his letter to Public Sector workers in September. Looks like we can expect and increase in both the size of our Public Sector AND the wages and benefits that they receive!

Payback, it’s beginning already! Hang on to your wallets!

Simple solution. If memory serves it costs about twice as much for home delivery when compared to community mailboxes so if neighborhoods want mail delivered to house it will be every second day. Monday, Wednesday and Friday one week and Tuesday and Thursday the next.

We have a community mailbox and rarely pick up the(junk)mail on a daily basis, I would guess twice a week would be the average unless a parcel is expected.

Heaven forbid, the fat and lazy had to walk a half block and get their mail. Probably the same demographic that will wait 20 min at the Tim Horton’s drive through (cars running), with a dog in their lap, because they are too lazy to walk inside where it is completely empty.

Exactly sparrow, gone are the days of needing mail delivered each day. We sometimes can go two weeks without receiving any mail. We could have carriers working five out of the ten days easily.

Awesome….keep delivering the mail to my door..

verballabel

It would take half the number of carriers, each responsible for two routes. Each week they would do one route on M W F and the other Tues and Thurs, visa versa the next.

Would not hurt my feelings one little bit if they follow the same plan for community boxes.

Well, this is the Canadian way, I got it (home delivery), I want to keep it, I want everyone to pay for it – either through higher stamp costs, or, government transfers from taxation revenues.

My mother is 90 years old. She lives alone in her house. They just got community mailboxes in her old neighbourhood. She cannot walk that far with her walker and hip problems and does not drive. As a result, they deliver the week’s mail to her on Wednesdays.

So, she pays the same as everyone else for stamps, but only gets 20% of the delivery service.

We have to be reminded that to send a letter across the country from PG takes about 10 if it covers 2 weekends. If it arrives on Thursday, she can add another 6 days to that.

Then again, most of her mail comes from Europe, so that cuts down the 10 days to 3 or 4.

Inner city mailboxes in Washington State are generally no more than 10 houses apart, so one only has to walk by 5 or so houses at the most.

Houses on larger lots all still have mailboxes, so mail is delivered by postal vehicle.

Their main issue is whether they should stop Saturday delivery.

So, did Justin put a stop to the switch to community mailboxes? If so, he seems to be making some pretty big decisions even before he is sworn in, decisions that he seems to be making without yet appointing a cabinet, decisions that he seems to be making without any discussion in Parliament, decisions that he seems to be making without even a vote of our democratically elected MP’s!

Didn’t he just seem to do the same with regards to withdrawing our jets from the Middle East situation?

I seem to remember many on the “left’ complaining about Stephen Harper and what they consider to be his autocratic leadership style!

The silence from the “left” is deafening!

I say keep door to door mail delivery. Canada Post is not losing money. We need to create more jobs in Canada not take more jobs away. At least Canada Post is paying a living wage. What do you want? Would you sooner see more people on welfare and you could pay them that way with your tax dollars. I think what Harper had in mind is to bring in more TFWs sub-contract delivery to community boxes at $10 an hr.

Oh I forgot to say that when Harper would pay big bucks like $10 an hr.you would most likely have to buy your own fuel and supply your own vehicle.

HGuy:”So, did Justin put a stop to the switch to community mailboxes?”

You ought to read the story from the beginning, because there it explains who made the decision:

“Canada Posts’ announcement this afternoon that they’ve decided to put a hold on its switch to community mailboxes has the enthusiastic support of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.”

Canada Post decided! “The silence from the “left” is deafening!” There is silence because you asked a non-smart question.

“Stephen Harper ” Stephen Who?

Hart Guy.. as a con supporter I know this is strange to you but what Justin is doing is called living up to his campaign promises… something harper never did… People voted Justin in to do what he said he would…and you know what..he is doing just that… strange to have a politician that does that. I know the cons don’t like that.. but suck it up butter cup..

I realize that some people on here do not understand that when a new company president was hired by the Board of Directors because the old one was fired by the Board for going against their wishes, the senior administrators, if they wish to keep their job, will put programs, which caused the old president to get fired, on hold.

It would be an idiot who would not do so and would draw fire from the new President.

You want to keep your job? Then be astute enough to understand what is going on around you.

BTW, it would not be the workers who put plans on hold, but senior administrators, such as the deputy minister.

I finally figured out what the problem is.

People in the Hart are living at an altitude which is a bit depleted of oxygen, so their brain cells do not work quite that well. :-)

I think Justin should build a wall to keep Hart Guy in his 3rd world country up there in the Hart!

Excellent news! It’s called customer service, people. Also known as a living wage. And a far better use of my taxpayer dollars than giving Mr. Harper and friends their offensively high wages and pensions.

cbdb, are you suggesting that Justin and Co. will not be receiving their offensively high wages and pensions? How about Mulcair and crew?

Also, customer service? I guess that your idea of customer service is receiving your Domino’s and Northland Dodge flyers at your doorstep! God forbid that you actually have to walk a few feet to pick them up, eh??

A living wage? Technology has replaced the mailman! At least for most things other than the aforementioned junk mail. How much should we pay for people to delivery junk mail, mail that most of us just immediately toss in the recycle bin? Maybe “sparrow’ has something with his ideas about reducing the number of times mail is delivered to each home?

Speaking of home, how on earth have I and my neighbours survived for at least the last 20 years without door to door home delivery? Perhaps we should start whining about getting door to door delivery in our neighbourhood. All they need to do is raise the price of a single stamp from about a buck to maybe two bucks or more in order to pay for my door to door delivery!!

goph2015, the air up here in the Hart is usually nice and fresh, healthy and clean as a whistle! That’s unlike the fog, haze, smog or whatever it is filling lungs in the bowl!

This is good news. Now we can be sure the millions in profits that Canada Post earns every year from over charging customers for mail delivery in Canada will continue to employ Canadians and support their families.

Agree with sparrow. There really is no need for mail to be delivered daily. This could easily offset the cost of maintaining door to door if that is what the change in plans will be under the liberals (community boxes should be put in place IMHO). Additionally, Rural route delivery should drop to twice a week. On the odd occasion that we do receive mail it is all junk that goes directly into recycling.

Canada Post is making profits. Those profits should not be made to disappear into the black hole of General Revenue and used for something else like even greater management salaries.

Twice a week door to door delivery would be alright for me.

Thrill of the week ! Canadian tire flyer Thursday !

All this discussion of what we should have and what we should not have may be interesting but comes with little information attached. Sorry I am interrupting this morning KaffeeKlatsch.

Is there anyone posting on here that knows some facts about mail delivery such as these simple ones:
• How many fewer mail delivery persons are required in BC as a result of installation of community mail boxes? What are the cost differences of the before and after implementation, including capital and maintenance of the boxes?
• If mail delivery goes twice a week, how many fewer mail delivery persons will be required? (assume mail volume does not drop, that carriers will have to carry 2.5 times their current load or go back to the mail drop more frequently.) What are the cost differences of the before and after implementation?
• What will happen to services such as express post which have specific delivery windows shorter than can be provided with twice a week delivery?

I sure do not know any of the answers to those most basic questions. Maybe Canada Post does.

In other words, what are the cost savings?

Will those savings be passed on through lower stamp costs as well as other mail service costs?

Canadian Tire and other flyers come through the Citizen where I live, not the CP carrier. I do not get the Citizen, but they have a guaranteed subscription number for their advertisers, so we get the Citizen on Thursdays only.

Good questions gopg2015. And then there’s the costs we don’t measure because they belong to someone else. Example – how many seniors injured themselves before vs after community mail boxes, and are the increased medical costs less or more than the delivery savings. CP doesn’t pay for medical, so they wouldn’t care about this. But what if they are more, in which case, maybe we should be looking at increasing home delivery. The problem with pretty much everything in our Canadian society is we look at issues with a narrow focus rather than a broad focus.

The city is responsible for pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, Northern Health, medical costs. If the city improves infrastructure that get’s people exercising, Northern Health saves money, but it’s city council that get’s voted out for raising taxes.

Or, the city chooses to plow roads and sidewalks less, saving money in their budget, but shifting costs to ICBC and Northern Health as accidents increase.

A lot of human suffering exits because of NIMBY. Not in my budget – Yours.

Posted on Monday, October 26, 2015 @ 8:03 PM by gopg2015
I finally figured out what the problem is.
People in the Hart are living at an altitude which is a bit depleted of oxygen, so their brain cells do not work quite that well. :-)

gopg2015 that was an unprofessional comment from you, even if you did attach a smiley.

I expect better from you sir.

metalman.

Let’s do the math. Canada Post says they would save 500,000,00 by cutting off delivery to 460,000 households. That works out to 1000 per year for each household.

Now if each mailman has 300-400 calls per day, that means that they are saying it costs 300,000 to 400,000 per year for each mailman.

That seems a bit ridiculous to me.

Well put ski51! We rarely look at integrated systems when it comes to costs or anything else that flows from changes in one “silo” affecting others.

These days many more industries are looking at their operations and beginning to introduce computerized decision support systems. If it has not already been done somewhere on a small scale among all the government services, the time is ripe.

Of course that requires much more co-operation and coordination than those service providers are used to and more time in developing and validating the computer predicted outcomes.

More time for administrative costs. Will there be efficiencies which result in savings as well as quality improvements at the end? One never knows unless one tries.

my2bits … go back to the source of your information. CTV news reported 460,000 households had been done.

It also reported that the estimated savings one ALL the conversions were done would be over $500million.

You need to divide all the households which will be converted, not just those which have been done.

I hear you metalman. Maybe you are setting your expectations too high for me. I am a human like everyone else and am guilty of stupid posts at times.

So PG (posted at 8:51), Canada Post is making a profit – horrors to that. But how do you know that?
Normally, corporations whether private or public are expected to organize and administer their operations to make profits. Crown corporations very often do not make profits and consequently do not report making profits. Should we be disappointed IF Canada Post does turn a profit – if indeed your contention is anywhere close to the truth. And, IF Canada Post is profitable, and the Federal Government is the only shareholder, why in the world would or should they not reward their only shareholder with a share of those profit?
I suggest you as well as many of your friends have investments in mutual funds or something of similar nature. Why do you invest? Surely, it must be for profit!
The Federal Government converted Canada Post to a Crown Corporation to effectively remove it from political interference – and it has continued to operate that way. Now, our good friend JT is wanting to change Canada Post back to being a political football. Careful for what you wish for, you might just get it.
I have collected my mail from a community mailbox since 1978 and it works very well! And yes, I live in the Haldi area so you can be assured I have a clear head and mind.

And speaking of skating rinks, many of those home walkways are just that during much of the ice and snow season.
Also on break-ins – could the good postal union spokesperson tell us how many community box break-ins there have been (let’s say) in the south-west area during the past 35 years? Not one that I can recall!

nuffsnuff1, taking your comments one step further, I would like to add that while the union and others that advocate for continued home delivery talk about the break-ins that have occurred at community boxes, they provide no information as to how much mail theft occurs at home delivery mail boxes.

If I go check for my mail at my community mail box, and I find my box pried open, I am quite confident that someone has stolen my mail.

If however, I were to receive home delivery, how would I know if someone had taken my mail? Am I to suspect that a mail theft has occurred if I come home from work and find nothing in my mailbox when I check it for mail? Or do I as thousands and thousands do each and every day simply assume that I didn’t get any mail today?

What is there to stop someone from walking up my sidewalk and removing my mail from my open and unlocked home delivery mail box, and then doing the same to my neighbour and their neighbour and so on and so on?

Perhaps Canada Post has statistics but how on earth would or could we gather this information in anything that might be consider valid and accurate. Obviously, we can’t!

So instead, those supporting home delivery, including the Postal Union which obviously has a vested interest in keeping home delivery in place, will point out how often(?) community mail boxes are broken into!