Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Apr 15/02) - Maureen Doherty finds it hard to believe she's alone in her dissatisfaction with Canada Post.

That's what an official at the customer service desk told her when she phoned to complain about waiting in line for 25 minutes to buy stamps.

"It's crazy in there. It's madness. It doesn't seem to matter when I go," fumed Doherty. "I'm really fed up."

Doherty credits Iqaluit's population boom and Canada Post's willingness to turn a blind eye to the mail jam at the city's only postal outlet.

Officials estimate the city has grown by some 2,000 people in the last four years, bringing the population to roughly 6,000 residents. That means the available 2,550 mail boxes at the downtown location and the other few hundred at the Browne Building are no longer enough.

"Everybody is cramming into one tiny little post office to get their mail everyday," said Doherty.

"It's not the fault of the people in this post office. It's Canada Post ignoring our needs," she said. "This is totally unacceptable."

Doherty also commented on the post office parking lot and how dangerous it's become. She said she felt in constant danger of hitting a pedestrian or being hit herself because of the congestion.

Not one to sit idle with her complaints, Doherty phoned Canada Post and offered a number of suggestions as to how the Crown corporation could better serve Iqalungmiut.

"It's a simple solution. There could be other postal outlets where people pick up their mail and buy stamps and have the full-service one downtown."

Dave Craig, the area manager for Canada Post in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, said the corporation is reassessing the needs of the city and devising a strategy to deal with the problems.

He would not however, comment on the nature of those solutions except to say they were not planning to downsize or reduce services or staff in any way.

"We need to improve our delivery service as far as the locked boxes go. We need more points of call, which would relieve the congestion at the counters," said Craig, from his office in Yellowknife.

"We want to take away that congestion. That's the biggest thing for the community."

Service at the post office began to suffer when staff ran out of boxes to assign newcomers. Customers were assigned general delivery addresses and were forced to join the fray to wait for their mail.

Craig said they were trying to sort out the mess by asking all general delivery customers to register at the post office. This will allow officials to determine accurate numbers and figure out how best to address the growing needs. "This will be put on the front burner and dealt with as quickly as possible," he said.