THORNTONVILLE, Alta. – Harvey Thornton doesn’t know many city folks who drive 80 kilometres round trip for their mail and he doesn’t know why he and his neighbours should either.
With the price of fuel likely to increase and more people working at jobs in the opposite direction from their designated post office, the 45 families in the rural area of Thorntonville want Canada Post to put stand-alone mailboxes, known as super mailboxes, in their area or let them pick up their mail in a more convenient location.
“Why should the postal gods determine where we get our mail?” asked Thornton, who has spent the last two years trying to improve mail service in the area.
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During the 1950s, the small Alberta towns of Flatbush, Fawcett and Jarvie were healthy farming communities with grocery stores, farm machinery dealerships, lumberyards and schools. Over the years, the province upgraded roads and built secondary highways 663 and 801, causing business to flow past the communities.
Now there’s little left of the hamlets besides a few houses, a convenience store, a liquor outlet and a post office.
Thornton and his neigh-bours must drive northeast to Athabasca or south to Westlock to buy groceries, clothes or farm machinery parts, in the opposite direction of their designated mailbox location.
“None of us would have an argument if you had to go through Jarvie to get to Westlock,” said Thornton, who has spent hours writing letters and talking to officials about the need for improved postal service.
Farming areas have changed dramatically since the small towns serviced the communities and the residents want Canada Post to accommodate the new reality of rural life.
“Canada Post has a Model T mentality: You can buy a vehicle in any colour as long as it’s black,” said Thornton.
Peter Dirks said with the cost of fuel, he doesn’t make unnecessary trips, including the 37 km round trip to Jarvie to pick up his mail.
“I just don’t go to town unless I have two legitimate reasons,” said Dirks, who only picks up his mail once every two weeks.
By the time he gets the mail, the post box, which is the size of a shoe box, is stuffed with flyers, newspapers, bills and a note asking him to come to the front desk to collect the rest of the mail that wouldn’t fit in.
Dirks said he’s asked to upgrade to a larger box, but has been refused. Instead, he has been told to pick up his mail more frequently.
“They threatened to cut my mail off because I don’t pick up my mail enough,” said Thornton, who admits relations between him and the postal worker have been strained since his push for improved service.
Because the Jarvie post office is in an old house, residents have access to the postal boxes only when the postal employee is at work.
This often makes it difficult for people to pick up their mail at a time that’s convenient for them.
Brenda Knobben also picks up her mail in Jarvie, but gets frustrated each time she drives over the rough gravel roads on the 38 km round trip.
“It’s not a quick trip,” said Knobben, who wants Canada Post to have a closer look at their community bordered by a provincial park and grazing reserves.
“We are not asking for it at the end of our driveway,” she said.
The residents want Canada Post to offer some kind of service closer to their homes.
They’ve suggested putting mailboxes at the junction of Highways 663 and 801, or hiring a student to deliver the mail to a closer location, or letting residents move their post office to another more convenient location for free.
Thornton estimates nine families have given up waiting for service and pay the $120 to $200 a year fee to pick up their mail where they work.
Just a few kilometres south of Thornton’s home, Canada Post provides rural delivery to the end of the driveways on some farms.
It also has a series of mailboxes scattered around the community, some less than four km apart. In Westlock, stand-alone mailboxes are scattered throughout the town.
“We don’t want something that no one else has,” said Dirks.
Teresa Williams, a spokesperson for Canada Post in northern Alberta, said the method of mail delivery in rural areas is based on various factors including convenience, location, routes and finances. Those factors don’t add up to change for the people of Thorntonville.
“We can’t offer customized service to every customer,” said Williams.
The easiest change would be to tack on rural mail delivery or super mailbox delivery to the existing postal routes, she said. Every route and mailbox is assigned a time code and the existing delivery route is already at its maximum, she said.
“A time calculation has to be added to the delivery person’s route. We couldn’t just put up a bank of boxes.”
To build another route would take months of planning to locate each household and to add new postal codes to the national network. It would also need more than 100 people on a waiting list, not dozens, she said.
“It’s quite an intensive type of work you have to do to build a proper route.”
Williams said there are areas across Canada where hundreds of people are on a waiting list for a post office and any extra finances from Canada Post would likely be directed to assisting those customers.
“We would probably consider something like that before building a new rural route.”
Williams said Canada Post has made exceptions in the past and allowed residents to move their free designated mail pickup spot to more convenient locations, particularly if a person is working in a different town and there are boxes available.
She didn’t know if there are boxes available at Dapp Corner or Westlock where Thorntonville residents would likely move.
Brian Storseth, MP for the area, said while Canada Post has been flexible with other postal problems in his federal constituency, it seems to have dug in its heels in Thorntonville.
“Canada Post has been very blunt with us,” he said. “They’re not willing to put in a superbox.”
“It’s quite an inconvenience to these people,” said Storseth.
In a letter to Thornton from the Canada Post ombudsman’s office last June, Beth Lambert, director of investigations in Ottawa, said Canada Post has the right to decide the mode of delivery. If the customer wants a more convenient method of receiving mail, it is allowed, but there is a fee for this convenience.
“With 14 million addresses across the country, Canada Post cannot offer a customized service to each and every customer. To do so would mean that every customer in a similar situation could make the same request and this could adversely affect Canada Post’s ability to provide economical and efficient mail delivery to all Canadians,” Lambert wrote.
Williams said once Canada Post’s ombudsman has ruled, it’s not likely the changes Thorntonville residents want will be made.
“The ombudsman is the final authority on any kind of concern like this,” said Williams.
