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Thursday, December 12, 2013 X Volume 26 No. 99
THURSDAY
Mitch Lipon has his cousin’s number Page A20
THIS WEEK
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THE POSTMAN NEVER RINGS ONCE Canada Post to stop urban door-to-door delivery; stamps to rise to $1 as of March 31, 2014 Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail shall keep the postmen from their appointed rounds — but cuts will
PUTTING THE STAMP ON PRICE HIKES 1943: 4 cents 1954: 5 cents 1968: 6 cents 1971: 7 cents 1972: 8 cents 1976: 10 cents 1977: 12 cents 1978: 14 cents 1979: 17 cents 1982: 30 cents 1983: 32 cents 1985: 35 cents 1987: 36 cents 1988: 37 cents 1989: 38 cents 1990: 39 cents
1991: 42 cents 1993: 43 cents 1995: 45 cents 1999: 46 cents 2001: 47 cents 2002: 48 cents 2004: 49 cents 2005: 50 cents 2006: 51 cents 2007: 52 cents 2009: 54 cents 2010: 57 cents 2011: 59 cents 2013: 63 cents 2014: $1 (as of March 31)
* Source: Canadian Philatelic, based on purchase of individual stamps
TURN TO PAGE A13 For more reaction to Canada Post’s plans
By Dale Bass STAFF REPORTER dale@kamloopsthisweek.com
Canada Post will discontinue door-to-door delivery of mail in urban areas and raise the cost of stamps to $1 when purchased on an individual basis. Stamps bought in a pack, however, will increase to 85 cents each. The announcement from the federal Crown corporation on Wednesday, Dec. 11, comes on the heels of fewer pieces of mail being delivered, according to Canada Post’s 2012 annual report, which can be read online at kamloopsthisweek.com. Door-to-door delivery in urban areas will be phased out in the next five years, with up to 8,000 positions being eliminated. Five-million Canadians who get mail delivered to their door will have community mailboxes added to the neighbourhoods, while 750,000 Canadians who live in rural areas will continue to receive door-to-door service. Bob Mitchell, president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, Local 758, said the decision will hurt Canadians. Mitchell told KTW he sees the delivery of mail not as a business product, but as a public service — and it’s just one of the reasons the
KTW reporter Andrea Klassen asked Kamloopsians using the Dalhousie Drive Canada Post office what they thought of the Crown corporation’s anouncement:
RON NEWMAN “Bad idea. It’s a service. That’s what we pay the government money for — to keep it going.”
EFFAT FARIDI “I think it’s awful. They’re cutting services right and left and I don’t know where the money is going.”
SEAN MITCHELL “Prices are going up and they’re cutting staff. It doesn’t make any sense to me . . . it seems like the government is picking the easy targets.”
RACHEL CORNWELL “If they really need the money that badly, it has to come from us, from the people.” MAUREEN LANDALS “Are you kidding me?”
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of 2,300 employes, almost all women. The case dragged on for 28 years, finally being resolved by the Supreme Court of Canada two years ago. Mitchell said his union understands the volume of first-class mail has decreased through the years as alternate ways of communicating have arisen online. “But, there were other opportunities to expand as a company,” he said. One way would be to follow a model used in other countries that provides banking services in post offices for a nominal fee, something Mitchell said would appeal to people who now use cheque-cashing companies that charge large fees. “Now we see what the Conservatives’ real agenda is,” he said, noting the announcement came one day after Parliament ended its current sitting for Christmas. “Only the Canadian government is determined to destroy its post office.” McLeod said the plan Canada Post has put into place will see the job losses happen through attrition, with an estimated 15,000 workers leaving the company or retiring. “They just won’t be replaced,” McLeod said. The first communities that will be required to switch to community mailboxes will be announced late in 2014.
Your reaction: ‘Are you kidding me?’
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president of the union local that represents letter carriers in Kamloops is angry and sad. Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo Conservative MP Cathy McLeod said it was a difficult decision, but argued changes needed to be made. McLeod cited a Conference Board of Canada report in April that predicted the postal system would see a $1-billion loss by 2020 if the corporation didn’t make changes to address the impact of online commerce, email and other forms of communication. “She always refers to that report,” Mitchell said. “But, if you look at Canada Post’s annual report, you’ll see it has had a profit of $500 million in the past five years.” The 2012 annual report — commissioned by Canada Post — notes a before-tax profit of $127 million for that year, compared to a $226 million loss in 2011. Mitchell said that figure is the result of a $150-million settlement the corporation was required to make on a lawsuit filed in the 1970s. Canada Post’s annual report notes the $127 million profit would have been a $25-million loss had reductions in sick leave and post-retirement health benefits not been agreed to in the latest collection agreement with its union. The pay-equity suit was filed by the Public Service Alliance of Canada in 1983 on behalf
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JUDY COLLINGE “It has to happen. They can’t be running a deficit all the time. We’ve been in a community-box situation for 35 years. It’s fine.”
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