Ottawa, workers spar over post office closures

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Published: June 9, 2005

The federal cabinet minister responsible for Canada Post insists a 12-year-old Liberal-imposed moratorium on rural postal closings remains in effect, despite the fact that about 50 have been closed in recent years.

The Canadian Postmasters and Assistants Association, or CPAA, is warning that as many as 750 rural post offices are under review and in some danger of being closed.

“Absolutely false,” national revenue minister John McCallum said in a June 2 interview. “I have discussed that with the new president and the chairman and we are on the same wave length. There is a cabinet directive from 1999 and I’ve told them very clearly they were to enforce that rigorously. There is no thought of ending it. These rumours keep coming up and they are totally wrong.”

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Pat Fagan, national vice-president of the CPAA, said Canada Post closes post offices when a postmaster cannot be found or an acceptable site for the post office is not available.

“So there definitely are closures and we are afraid more are on the way,” he said from the association head office in Ottawa. The CPAA has compiled a list of more than 60 small town post offices across the country that are staffed by temporary postmasters while their future is studied.

A second list details 50 post offices that have been permanently or temporarily closed in recent years, including Fairy Glen, Sask. and Esther, Alta.

Despite government denials of a plan to close more, the association points to a December 2002 warning from then-Canada Post president AndrŽ Ouellet.

“Many of our rural post offices do not generate sufficient revenues to be self-sustaining,” Ouellet wrote. “There are limits to the funds we can provide to maintain small rural offices.”

The CPAA has been lobbying MPs and local politicians to raise the profile of the issue and in Parliament, petitions have been tabled and questions asked.

On June 1, Saskatchewan Conservative MP Lynne Yelich tabled a petition organized by Dundurn postmistress Marjorie Roach.

“The petition calls upon the federal government to keep the Dundurn post office open and retain the moratorium on rural post office closures,” the MP said.

On April 15, Souris-Moose Mountain, Sask., Conservative Ed Komarnicki said in the House of Commons that in a year of record Canada Post profits, the government should make clear there will be no closures.

McCallum said closures are limited.

“I am acutely aware that the post office is the most important face of the federal government in much of rural Canada,” he said. “I do not know how many times I have to say this. The only time when there may be temporary closures is if there is a small building with conditions that are not subject to the health rules and nobody willing to run the post office. Other than that, the post offices stay open.”

Conservative post office critic Brian Pallister said the minister is not being entirely honest about the issue.

“The problem is there have been rural post closings and I’ve been trying to get the minister to answer the question,” he said June 2. “If he would simply explain the rationale for the closures, I think he could give rural Canadians some peace of mind that the rationale would not apply to their area.”

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