MPs voted unanimously last week that the government should order Canada Post to maintain rural mail delivery at current levels despite protests from rural employees and contract workers that their work conditions are unsafe.
The Oct. 25 vote ended a debate in which
rural MPs complained that despite a decade-old moratorium on rural post office closings, rural postal service has been in decline.
Opposition MPs blamed the Conservative government for allowing rural postal service deterioration by stealth. They said the Conservatives were reversing a promise made by Liberals in 1994, which was designed to halt rural post office closings.
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“The motion asks that Canada Post’s operations be monitored,” Bloc Québecois MP Paul Crete said during the final hour of the debate. He said MPs must prevent indirect privatization of the postal system.
MPs from all parties offered evidence that service in their ridings has deteriorated.
The latest flashpoint was a refusal by postal employees or contract workers to deliver mail in some areas, claiming it is unsafe for drivers on treacherous country roads or on busy roads when they have to pull off beside post boxes.
Rural Ontario Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant noted that prime minister Stephen Harper and Lawrence Cannon, minister responsible for Canada Post, met with the president of Canada Post earlier this year and made it clear that the government intends to ensure quality rural mail delivery is a priority.
She implied rural disruptions are the result of actions by members of “militant unions” now in negotiation with Canada Post and urged that worker safety be weighed “against the greater good” of rural delivery.
She said the Conservative government will honour the spirit of the House demand that rural mail service continue in those areas where it is now available.
When the vote was held in the Commons on the Liberal rural post office motion, it was expected to divide on partisan lines with the Conservatives opposing.
Instead, at the last moment the Conservatives announced they were in support and the rural postal service motion passed unanimously.
