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Mad about mail Residents complain of waiting weeks for post office deliveries while worker goes on holidays
Cody Punter
Northern News Services
Published Monday, September 16, 2013
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
For the last few weeks, Yellowknifers waiting for important packages and mail have been making regular trips to their mailboxes only to find a cold, empty receptacle.
Angie Benoit displays the empty mail box at her house on Finlayson Drive. Benoit says she waited for nearly a month for a piece of mail to be delivered from downtown Yellowknife to her home in Frame Lake South. - Cody Punter/NNSL photo |
Angie Benoit says she first noticed problems with her mail delivery in the middle of the summer.
She said her daughter was waiting anxiously for a letter to confirm that she had been approved for student financial assistance.
When the letter finally showed up Aug. 19, it was postmarked July 23 from a Yellowknife address.
"That's one day short of four weeks. It shouldn't take that long for the mail to come from downtown to Frame Lake," she said.
"I just think it's kind of ridiculous."
Sue Glowach said she didn't receive any mail at all between the end of August and Sept. 10. Her daughter was also waiting for letters regarding several scholarships she had applied for. Her husband runs a small business and relies on receiving cheques for a large part of their income.
"That's how we get paid," she said.
After waiting nearly a week without receiving any mail, she decided to call Canada Post's customer service line.
"It seemed bizarre, so last week I called them up, and asked, 'What's up?' because my daughter had to fly back to university in Halifax and pay all her money without hearing about any of her scholarships," said Glowach.
She was told it would be at least a week before the head office could update her about her mail.
When she asked if there was any way she could get any more information, she was told to call the local Canada Post office.
A representative at the downtown post office then explained to her that one of the employees responsible for delivering mail was on holiday and that the contractor who was supposed to replace him "wasn't able to handle it."
News/North called the post office Wednesday to get more information about the delays and was told to contact the sorting depot at the airport.
Upon answering the phone at the depot, a Canada Post employee said "as far as I know, everything is fine," before hanging up.
Subsequent calls to the depot were not answered nor was there a response to voice mails.
Nicole Garbutt, who owns a small business and was waiting for several important packages, said she encountered a similar response when she contacted the sorting depot.
"He said he didn't understand what the big deal was," said Garbutt, who eventually went to pick up the package from the depot herself.
John Caines, a spokesperson from Canada Post's head office in Ottawa, admitted that Canada Post was having problems hiring new staff over the summer. When an employee decided to go on holiday, it put an added strain on mail delivery.
"It was the perfect storm," said Caines.
Caines apologized to Yellowknifers for the lack of service over the past few weeks. He said the post office has since hired two new employees, who both started work last week.
Most people News/North has spoken with reported that they started to receive at least some mail again on Sept. 10.
Garbutt said she is relieved that mail service has resumed. However, she is upset about how her case was dealt with and plans to make a formal complaint.
She added Canada Post should be held to a higher standard than most businesses.
"As a business that provides a national service, you need to be able to maintain that service when people's lives come up," said Garbutt.
"Your solution can't be to not provide a service for over two weeks."
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