POSTAL SERVICE: Trudeau's decision - Spring 2017?

POSTAL SERVICE: Trudeau's decision - Spring 2017?

Postby Oscar » Thu Jun 16, 2016 9:32 am

“Our post office is under review - Have your say!” (Talking Points and Template for submissions by organizations is below . . . .)

[ http://www.cupw.ca/en/campaigns-and-iss ... anada-post ]

Deadlines

◾Input from organizations and municipalities – June 23, 2016

◾Input from the public – end of July 2016


The federal government has appointed an independent task force to identify options for the future of our postal service. It says that everything but postal privatization is on the table.

Ways to :Have your say”:

- Send submissions before June 23 (organizations) and July 31 (for individuals)

- Also suggested: post the link to “Our post office is under review - Have your say!” on your website and promote it with Allies.

[ http://www.cupw.ca/en/campaigns-and-iss ... anada-post ]

- Please encourage your members to respond to the weekly questions so the Task Force will get a clear understanding of the importance of public postal services to the people of Canada. [ http://www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/examendepo ... e-eng.html ]

The task force wants to know what you think. You can have your say by contacting the task force:

◾Online: Canada.ca/canadapostreview

[ http://www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/examendepo ... x-eng.html ]

◾Email: [ TPSGC.ExamendeSPC-CPCReview.PWGSC@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca ]

◾Twitter: Tweet and use #CPReview2016 hashtag

◾Facebook: Like, share and comment at Facebook.com/Canada-Post-Review-521437564704406

[ https://www.facebook.com/Canada-Post-Re ... 7564704406 ]

◾Instagram: Share photos and include the #CPReview2016 hashtag

◾Fax: 1-844-836-8138

◾Mail: Canada Post Review, CP 2200, Matane, QC G4W 0K8


Please share your input with us at [ feedback@cupw-sttp.org] .

Deadlines

◾Input from organizations and municipalities – June 23, 2016

◾Input from the public – end of July 2016

Click here for more information on the task force timelines
[ http://www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/examendepo ... e-eng.html ]


Please cc submissions to the Task Force to:

Barb McNeely Sears
Canadian Union of Postal Workers
Campaign Coordinator – Prairie Region
407-275 Broadway, Winnipeg, MB R3C 4M6
Tel : (204) 942-5480 Ext 228
Cell: (204) 599-5955
Fax: (204) 942-5493
E-Mail: barbmcneely@cupw-sttp.org

= = = = = =

Template for input to Canada Post Review Task Force

(Insert name of your organization) welcomes the opportunity to provide input to the Canada Post Review Task Force.

(Insert name of your organization) is a (Insert description of your organization, with details such as type of organization, number of members and mandate). (Explain how your organization uses the mail, if relevant).

We understand that the Task Force has been appointed to collect input and information, and identify options for the future of Canada Post in order to help the federal government attain its goal “ensuring that Canadians receive quality service from Canada Post at a reasonable price. “ We are writing because we are very interested in the future of our public postal service.

(Insert name of your organization) is especially interested in (Insert key issues and any improvements your organization would like to see).

Possible issues:

- Getting home mail delivery back?

- Keeping daily delivery?

- Keeping your public post office?

- Greening the post office?

- Creating services that support seniors and people with disabilities?

- Bringing back our postal bank for more inclusive, accessible financial services for everyone?

(Insert name of your organization) is also concerned about (Insert concerns your organization has, if any).

In closing, we urge the Task Force to (make recommendations relating to your issues and concerns)

Thank you for considering our input.

Yours truly,

(Name)
(Name of organization)

You can get information on these and other issues in the weeks to come at CUPW.ca/canadapostreview
[ http://www.cupw.ca/en/campaigns-and-iss ... anada-post ]

= = = = = = = = =

Included in the Government’s review of Canada Post services are issues like the continuation of door to door delivery, reducing mail delivery 5 days a week, postal banking, expanded services including services to seniors, and making Canada Post a Green hub.


For more information please go to the CUPW National website at
[ http://www.cupw.ca/en/campaigns-and-iss ... anada-post ]


Here are five issues on Canada Post’s services you will want to consider.

A Canada Post for Everyone

Canada Post has made profits for 19 out of the past 21 years. Just last year, it netted almost $100 million in profits. There’s no reason those profits shouldn’t be invested back into our communities. Canada Post is a public service that can do more with its vast network. Let’s not shut the door on our post office’s potential!

Postal Banking – A Bank for Everyone

· All over the world, postal banks are thriving, bringing in solid revenues to maintain postal services for people in countries from India to Switzerland.

· Studies suggest that many of us would benefit from a postal bank, especially lower-income, Indigenous and rural residents, migrant workers and all those who are currently forced to use payday lenders and/or pay high user fees to the big banks.

· Many different options exist for us to consider, ranging from a fully public bank to partnerships with other banks or credit unions. What type of model would best suit Canadians’ needs?

· Canada Post must release the secret study it conducted on postal banking, the uncensored parts of which suggest it would be a “win-win” for Canada.

· For 100 years, Canada boasted a postal savings bank – a bank for everyone – and the legislation is still on the books. It’s time to bring back postal banking!


Restoring Our Home Delivery – The People Have Spoken

· It’s clear: Canadians want delivery to their doors. From frozen locks to keys that open everybody’s box, from arms that don’t fit into the slots to dangerous locations, from widespread thefts to snow complaints, from city protests to sit-ins, the so-called “community” mailbox program is a total failure and should be scrapped immediately.

· Only one third of Canadians get mail delivery to a so-called “community” mailbox. The majority of us are still getting some form of home delivery when you count in apartment mailboxes and rural mailboxes. Walking to your apartment lobby or down your driveway is not the same as going to a group mailbox far from your door.

· When Canada Post nets hundreds of millions of dollars in a given year, it doesn’t break the bank to restore home delivery to households that should never have lost it. Canada Post could also expand home delivery service as future profits allow.

· The hidden costs of Canada Post’s termination of home delivery for millions of people have yet to be counted: the health care costs of slips and falls, the costs to municipalities, the downgraded property values, the thefts, the litter and pollution, etc.

· Keeping our home delivery allows Canada Post to do more at the door and provide other services. Cutting it means those possibilities are gone forever.


Full, Daily Delivery – Service We Can Count On

· With a profitable post office and a booming parcel business in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, Canadians shouldn’t be forced to trade off or downgrade their postal services.

· Many individuals and businesses rely on the daily delivery of time-sensitive materials and our service guarantees. If they can’t get that from Canada Post, they’ll go elsewhere, starving the public post office of revenue. Even if you don’t need mail delivered every day, the option should be there for you when you do need it.

· Canada Post’s vast network allows for a greener delivery system, as opposed to having a multitude of couriers and small delivery companies on the streets.

· Many people don’t understand that Canada Post already has a system that allows it to adjust to deal with fluctuations in mail volumes. Cutting delivery days is a non-solution to a non-problem.

· Keeping full daily delivery allows Canada Post to do more at the door and provide other services. Cutting it means those possibilities are gone forever.


Services for Seniors and Others – Caring About Our Communities

· Many mail carriers are already the eyes and ears of their neighbourhoods. They save lives. They notice when the mail piles up. They come to the aid of accident victims. They sound the alarm when they suspect fires, break-ins, lost children or straying pets. They help prevent seniors and people with disabilities from becoming isolated in their homes. Services for seniors and others would simply formalize what postal workers are already doing, every day.

· Canada is justifiably proud of its health care system and a Carrier Check-In Service could serve as a valuable supplement to our system, working with health care providers to meet the needs of an aging population.

· There may come a day when we may need such a public service – we are all just one step away from becoming incapacitated, even temporarily, due to all sorts of life events.

· Canada used to have a Letter Carrier Alert service and other countries have similar services, from check-in services at France’s La Poste to Japan Post’s “Watch Over”program.

· Postal workers can help seniors and people with disabilities stay in their homes longer, improving dignity and quality of life while reducing assisted living and nursing home costs..


A Greener Post Office – A Concrete Way for Everyone to Fight Climate Change

· Climate change may well be the fight of our lives and we need to gear up for it, using everything we’ve got. Crown Corporations like Canada Post can be tools to create better environmental infrastructure and help build a greener, more sustainable economy.

· Post offices could install electric car charging stations and gradually replace postal fleets with hybrid or electric vehicles. Many more of us would buy electric cars, given the right incentives, such as knowing we could charge them no matter where we went because post offices are everywhere in Canada!

· Post offices could also connect people in their communities with climate-friendly businesses such as local grocers and environmental products by offering display space or delivery.

· Our postal bank could come with a built-in social mandate to provide special loans for energy-efficient retrofits or purchases. La Banque Postale in France, for example, has a mandate for social housing loans.

· Our publicly owned, national post office is the largest retail chain and logistics company in the country. Creating a greener post office would have a huge impact on Canadians – and our environment – everywhere.
Oscar
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Re: ACTION ALERT: Our post office is under review-Have your

Postby Oscar » Tue Jun 21, 2016 9:51 pm

RE: Canada Post Review Task Force

June 21, 2016

We understand that the Task Force has been appointed to collect input and information, and identify options for the future of Canada Post in order to help the federal government attain its goal “ensuring that Canadians receive quality service from Canada Post at a reasonable price.“

The Quill Plains (Wynyard) Chapter of the Council of Canadians welcomes the opportunity to provide input to the Canada Post Review Task Force.

Founded in 1985, the Council of Canadians is a registered, non-profit social action organization, mobilizing a network of 60 chapters across the country and is part of a global movement working for social and environmental justice. Canada Post is critical to the Council of Canadians for the nation-wide inclusive, accessible distribution of our quarterly news magazine and special campaign information to our large membership, as well as receiving donations from its supporters.

Our Chapter is essentially a rural one. Needless to say, making home mail delivery and preserving our public post offices an important feature of living in rural Saskatchewan. Many of our members are senior citizens, live on farms or in small towns, and many do not have Internet service in their homes. Bringing back our postal bank for more inclusive, accessible financial services for everyone would also be welcomed.

We are writing because we are very interested in the future of our public postal service.

In closing, we urge the Task Force to:

- maintain or re-establish daily home mail deliver;
- maintain our public post offices; and
- re-establish our postal banking system.

Thank you for considering our input.

Yours truly,

Elaine Hughes, Contact
Quill Plains (Wynyard) Chapter
Council of Canadians
Box 23, ARCHERWILL, SK S0E 0B0
TELEPHONE: 306-323-4901
EMAIL: tybach@sasktel.net
Oscar
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Joined: Wed May 03, 2006 3:23 pm

Re: ACTION ALERT: Our post office is under review-Have your

Postby Oscar » Tue Apr 18, 2017 10:33 am

London chapter calls for postal service to be restored, Liberals to decide on their promise this spring

[ http://canadians.org/blog/london-chapte ... ise-spring ]

April 18, 2017 - 5:46 am

In 2015, the London chapter posed at a 'community' mailbox site transformed into a community garden of resistance.

The Council of Canadians London chapter distributed postcards and 'decorated' self-serve mailboxes yesterday to demand that the Liberal government fulfill its October 2015 election campaign promise to restore door-to-door postal service.

The outreach noted, "HELP US GET HOME MAIL DELIVERY BACK! Come help us distribute postcards and info letters to the neighbourhoods which were targeted for cuts to door-to-door service in 2015. In opposition and during the election, the Liberals opposed these service cuts -- which were implemented in London AFTER they were elected in October 2015! Now they are in office, PM Trudeau and Minister Judy Foote (responsible for the Post Office) need reminding that a Parliamentary committee has recommended restoring Door-to-Door mail delivery in areas where this service was cut."

It adds, "JOIN US! Monday April 17, from 2-4 pm. We will meet at 21 Carfrae Cres., the continuation of Richmond south of the river). We will distribute letters & postcards calling on Foote and the Prime Minister to put an end to this Harper Hangover! We will also have on hand stickers to 'decorate' Self-Serve Mailboxes with the message above, calling on Trudeau to keep his promise!"

DurhamRegion.com has reported, "About 100,000 households were converted from door-to-door delivery to community mailbox delivery in 2014. By early 2015, about one million households had either been converted to a community mailbox or had been informed that they would be converting over the course of the year. ...A House of Commons report, entitled 'The Way Forward for Canada Post', contains recommendations that include the reinstatement of home mail delivery services. But, it only makes reference to those communities that were converted to community mailboxes after Aug. 3, 2015."

When the Harper government first announced that door-to-door mail delivery would stop for five million households over a five year period, Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow commented, "This is yet another case of a Harper-driven impoverishment of an essential service. It will negatively affect seniors, people with disabilities and other Canadians who rely on the mail."

The Liberal platform during the October 2015 election unequivocally promised, "We will save home mail delivery. By ending door-to-door mail delivery, Stephen Harper is asking Canadians to pay more for less service. That is unacceptable. We will stop Stephen Harper’s plan to end door-to-door mail delivery in Canada and undertake a new review of Canada Post to make sure that it provides high-quality service at a reasonable price to Canadians, no matter where they live."

Yesterday, Globe and Mail columnist John Ibbitson wrote, "The Liberals promised to end the conversion of home delivery of mail to community mailboxes. A subsequent study estimated that abandoning conversion would cost $400-million and sink the Crown corporation’s efforts to stay in the black. A final decision is expected this spring on whether to break the promise or lose the savings. Both choices are lousy. Shame on the Liberals for painting themselves into this corner."

Public Services minister Judy Foote recently began an indefinite leave of absence for personal reasons. She will be replaced by Natural Resources minister Jim Carr during her absence.

The Council of Canadians first highlighted its opposition to the cancellation of door-to-door postal service in December 2013.

We await the full restoration of door-to-door mail delivery.

Tags: chapters
[ http://canadians.org/tags/chapters ]

Brent Patterson's blog
Political Director of the Council of Canadians
[ http://canadians.org/blogs/brent-patterson ]
Oscar
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