Within the next five years, Canadian residents will have to go pick up their own mail. The nation’s postal service, facing $104 million in losses in the second quarter of this year alone, will halt door-to-door delivery, lawmakers announced this week.
And critics aren’t happy, saying not only that the plan will isolate the poor and elderly but also that it was announced a day after lawmakers went on holiday break, a la cowardly fashion, USA Today reported.
Part of the plan includes the layoff of between 6,000 and 8,000 postal service workers. Another part includes increased prices for stamps.
“These job-killing and service-cutting measures will isolate seniors, the poor and the disabled living in urban areas,” said Olivia Chow, a member Parliament from the New Democratic Party, to the National Post. “The Conservatives waited until the House has risen to deliver this lump of coal to Canadians. Canadians deserve better.”
But the plan has many supporters.
Canada Post is facing massive financial losses and can’t continue operations without reform, said Transport Minister Lisa Raitt in the USA Today report.
“The Government of Canada supports Canada Post in its efforts to fulfill its mandate of operating on a self-sustaining basis in order to protect taxpayers, while modernizing its business and aligning postal services with the choices of Canadians,” Mrs. Riatt said in a news release.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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