Jessica Klinkenberg
Northern News Services
Published Friday, December 21, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - Canada Post employees are going above and beyond this Christmas to ensure holiday gifts and cards reach their destinations.

During the Christmas season Canada Post receives more parcels than at any other time of the year.

Karen Booker, Suzy Hitchison and Vicki Cook with Canada Post show some of the parcels and letters that have been pouring in for the busiest time of the year for Canada Post. - Jessica Klinkenberg/NNSL photo

With Christmas Eve falling on Monday this year, Canada Post will be working through Saturday and Sunday to help distribute the gifts.

Lorette Ellis, area manager for the NWT and Northern Alberta, said postal workers were asked if they would be willing to put in the extra hours over the weekend.

"It's all on a volunteer basis. Everybody is concerned to make every effort possible to get as much mail as possible to the residents in Yellowknife," she said.

Parcels will be delivered on Saturday and Sunday, and the main office will be open on Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

They will also be open on Tuesday, but Ellis said they wanted to do their best to ensure parcels for Christmas make it in time.

Workers have been eager to help, she said. "We've had extreme co-operation from all the workers."

Ellis said more parcels are delivered in Yellowknife per capita than in the south because of the high amount of Internet shopping done by Yellowknife and outlying communities.

One of the concerns for Canada Post is the weather. Recently central Canada has been under an extreme weather watch. Ellis said this has affected delivery, since many flights carrying packages to the region have been cancelled.

Despite poor weather, postal carriers are being kept busy delivering a surge of parcels.

"They're coming in fast and furious," said Vicki Cook, a rural-suburban mail carrier with Canada Post.

It's been so busy she can't recall the first Christmas letter or Christmas present she had to deliver.

"It's all kind of blurred together," she said.

But she's looking forward to the end of the Christmas season.

"If I never see another Christmas letter this year it will be too soon," she joked.

Cook said the volume of Christmas mail that passes through her hands is three times more than any other time of the year.

Cook added that she and her fellow mail carriers are working hard to help with Christmas.

"We just aim to please and hope we can get as many parcels out there as possible."