Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara is thrilled to see a Parliamentary committee recommend Canada Post reinstate door-to-door mail delivery.
The planned phase-out of door-to-door struck a nerve in Tecumseh with officials from Canada Post being brought in for a special public meeting at town hall.
McNamara sees the recommendation as a victory for his residents.
Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara at town council, January 26, 2015. (Photo by Mike Vlasveld)
"This is great news, in particular for our seniors and disabled in our community. The committee was actually listening," says McNamara. "Now it's time to move forward and clean up the mess."
Canada Post has phased out door-to-door service in parts of the country and was looking at phasing out the service altogether.
McNamara says Canada Post tried to ram through their plan to do away with door-to-door delivery in favour of community mailboxes at the expense of resident safety.
"Our town was never designed to take these boxes, especially the old, established areas," says McNamara. "It has become a safety issue."
McNamara feels there's an easy answer to avoid the controversy that surrounded Canada Post's rollout of community mailboxes and phase-out of door-to-door delivery.
"It's called consultation," says McNamara. "Mail delivery is something that's been in existence here for hundreds of years. It's something that needs to be restored and certainly preserved."
The committee's recommendation also advises the number of days a week door-to-door service is offered doesn't need to be reduced and the freeze on installing community mailboxes should remain. Raising postal rates and a suggestion of an expanded Canada Post mandate to include cellular or Internet service was also suggested in the committee's report.
