Garden City residents push to keep home mail delivery

Residents of a Winnipeg neighbourhood are getting ready to fight Canada Post's plan to replace door-to-door mail delivery with community mailboxes.

Two areas in northwest Winnipeg, with postal codes starting with R2P and R2V, will be among the first in Canada to switch over to community mailboxes later this year.

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In the Garden City neighbourhood, which will be part of the initial changeover, numerous homeowners have posted window signs calling on Canada Post to keep home delivery.

"I'm too old to be going to the corner to get my mail," resident Myrna Westman said Tuesday.

"I've been around for a long time and I do like door-to-door service, and I'm still in the old school that is still writing letters."

Westman said she has also written a letter to her member of Parliament, asking that home mail delivery be continued in her neighbourhood.

Elsewhere in Garden City, Kulwant Paira also supports door-to-door delivery.

"Everyday we get mail and all the stuff like that," he said. "It's hard to go to the mailbox and grab it every day, especially in the winter time when it's really snowing."

Canada Post announced the changes in December as part of a five-year nationwide plan aimed at reducing costs.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers is hosting a town hall meeting on Wednesday to hear what people think of the plan.

"It's mostly an opportunity for residents to have a discussion about their concerns over the proposed changes," said Ben Zorn, president of CUPW's Winnipeg local.

The town hall meeting starts at 7 p.m. on Wednesday at the Maples Collegiate gymnasium.

Zorn said the changes are expected to happen by mid-October, but he's heard from people worried about where the large community mailboxes will go.

"They're concerned over litter that comes from it, they're concerned over increased traffic to those boxes, and they're certainly concerned over the look," he said.