Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, January 16, 2008

RANKIN INLET - People in Rankin Inlet have been making the trek to the post office only to find empty mail boxes staring back at them on most days during the past two months.

In fact, people are finding regular mail from across Canada is taking more than a month to reach the Kivalliq in many cases.

Gabe Karlik of Rankin Inlet is greeted with the alltoofamiliar sight of yet another empty mailbox this past week. - Darrell Greer/NNSL photo

The slowdown of mail has been the result of a number of problems, said the manager of national media relations for Canada Post.

John Caines said his Northern representatives have informed him that blizzard conditions led to the Rankin post office being closed three times in the month of December, and a high number of flight cancellations during the past few weeks have also contributed to the mail delays.

"There's been problems with flights going in and out of Rankin, not just with storms, but also with visibility and high-wind issues," said Caines.

"This Christmas also had a very heavy parcel load right across the country, including going to the North, and that slowed things as well.

"Our people there tell me they're doing their best to get the back-logged mail out and moving.

"They're trying to get things back to some semblance of order, but they were hit with a lot of different issues and just couldn't handle it all."

While Canada Post's Northern reps may be citing weather conditions as a major cause of the slowdown in mail delivery, the numbers simply don't back that up.

According to official flight information obtained by Kivalliq News, only two First Air flights (the airline that handles the mail) have been forced to bypass Rankin in the past six weeks.

Flight 300 from Winnipeg was forced to cancel on Dec. 4 and 5 into Rankin due to weather conditions.

Flight 591 from Edmonton also flew over Rankin on Dec. 5 and continued on to Iqaluit, but was able to land in Rankin on its return trip later that day.

There have been no flight cancellations in Rankin due to weather since Dec. 5.

Caines said letters and parcels shouldn't take three or four weeks to reach Nunavut at any time of the year.

He said Canada Post has been working hard the past few years to get mail in and out of the North faster.

"We have made some progress, but this time of year a lot of things come into play that slow the mail.

"But, to take as long as some things have been taking is not acceptable, and I don't know what to tell you other than we aren't doing a very good job there."

Caines said despite what some people may think, there is no way the increased shipping of food mail should slow the delivery of regular mail, despite the fact both are delivered by the same airline.

He said even though First Air gets full cargo rates for delivering food mail, it shouldn't be done at the cost of leaving regular mail behind.

"That should not be the case. One (food mail) should not affect the other (regular mail) in any way.

"I can assure you that our people are aware of the issue and trying their best to make sure this gets resolved and the service improves."

Normal can't come soon enough for Rankin resident Mary Irkootee.

She's been waiting for important documents for weeks and is getting extremely frustrated.

"This bloody process concerning the residential school issue - they call me asking why I didn't sign and return the forms they sent me long ago and I haven't received anything," said Irkootee.

"I'm also waiting for tax forms that were mailed to me before Christmas and here it is today, Jan. 9, and I still haven't received anything.

"It tears me apart to go to the post office every day and find nothing.

"The people in charge of the residential program told me they sent another form and I'll have it in three days, but we don't get anything by mail in three days."

Irkootee said she gets angry when she listens to people on local radio talking about ordering groceries by food mail on a Monday and having them in their home on Tuesday or Wednesday.

She said she'd like to know why food mail can be so fast, but regular mail takes forever to get here.

"Getting food mail is important for everybody, but don't tell me you can get food here in a day or two but it takes weeks, or months, for a letter or parcel to reach us.

"They say planes and weather are to blame for regular mail being so slow, but those same planes bring the food mail.

"Our mail might as well come by dog team. At least that way we'd know it's coming.

"It couldn't be any slower than what it's been lately."