More woes with postal service
Woman only getting mail on Saturdays; Canada Post assures all is well
Erin Steele
Northern News Services
Published Friday, March 14, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Despite Canada Post being fully staffed with mail carriers in Yellowknife, at least one person says they are not regularly getting their mail.
Metslal Mesgun, who lives at Northern United Place, says she has been receiving mail only one day a week - Saturday - since mid-February. A resident of that building for six years, she says aside from this instance and another in 2012, she receives mail every day.
Not getting her mail presents a particular problem for Mesgun, an immigrant who often expects important and time-sensitive documents, but adds this is a problem for everyone.
"If you don't pay your bills on time, do they accept the excuse that your mail didn't come?" Mesgun asked rhetorically.
"A lot of people do everything online these days, but not everybody," she said, adding there are many seniors who live in her building.
"Do you think all 75-year-olds pay their bills online?"
Phil Legault, manager of media relations for Canada Post, says that while the company can't disclose how many letter carriers are employed in Yellowknife, it is fully staffed.
"The note I received back from the local area superintendent is that right now, they have full coverage and all of the mail is going out," said Legault.
He was told the regular carrier of the route that includes Northern United Place has been away for personal reasons this week and somebody else has been covering that route.
"There was one day on Monday the worker was not able to make that route ... there haven't been any days missed with the exception of this past Monday," said Legault.
Last year, Yellowknife residents went through two periods of erratic mail
delivery as the result of a shortage of postal workers in the city.
In September, many downtown and Old Town residents went without regular mail service after a replacement mail carrier filling in for a regular delivery person on vacation.
In November and December, residents in Ndilo and Latham Island went through a similar situation which was later attributed to a high turnover of staff at the post office, according to Canada Post at the time.
