Mail delivered later as postal jobs merged

Postal service delivery is changing in Ottawa's east end today and by October the entire city will be running the new model.

Canada Post is eliminating 100 positions through attrition and the carriers that remain are now called "delivery agents". Parcel and letter delivery, which have been two separate positions until now, are being merged into one.

Mail will also be sorted and sequenced by machine.

The new model is already up and running in Kanata and Orleans and starts today in the K1B, K1G, K1H and K1X postal codes.

Winnipeg, Regina and Montreal have already switched to this new model.

Tom St. Germain has been delivering mail for 33 years and plans to retire next year. He told CBC News the change is going to be hard.

"Canada Post was set up to give people the service," he said. "The way they're going now, they're cutting down on services."

Postal workers logging more OT

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW)said some postal workers could not keep up and were finishing their routes at 8 p.m. or 9 p.m., far past the end of their eight-hour shift.

Denis Lemelin, president of the CUPW, said Canada Post has suspended workers for logging overtime and the same could happen in Ottawa.

"The employer is really pushing, really pushing and harassing people that they do the delivery within their eight-hour span of time," Lemelin said.

Canada Post said the industry is changing because e-commerce is growing and letter mail has dropped 20 per cent in the last five years.

"We need to make a huge adjustment because people are looking for more parcels and less mail," said Jon Hamilton, a spokesman for Canada Post.

"If we don't make this change now, Canada Post is going to be in huge trouble."