EV chargers, office supplies, parcel wall part of new offering
LITTLE CURRENT—Legend has it that the former ‘federal building’ in downtown Little Current (that currently is home to the Town of Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands municipal offices and Canada Post) was a bonus to the Town of Little Current associated with the retirement of Thomas Farquhar, the hometown Member of Parliament for the old riding of Algoma East in 1948 in order to create a safe Liberal seat where Lester B. Pearson could run and join the government. Mr. Pearson, of course, eventually became the federal party leader and Prime Minister.
The late Mr. Farquhar was elevated to the Senate of Canada and in the process, downtown Little Current got a brand-new federal building that housed the post office, the Canada Customs services offices and offices for Indian Health Services (as it was then known).
That time, in 1948 or 1949, when the building was built and opened was likely the last time it had local and regional interest, together with an open house and visiting dignitaries from Ottawa.
The last time, that is, until last Wednesday, April 26 when Canada Post officially opened its newly-visioned post office in the 75-year-old building complete with snacks, gifts and, once again, visiting dignitaries from Ottawa.
The post office portion of the fairly large building has the smallest footprint now in the old “federal building.” The municipal offices and council chambers occupy most of it. (The old Town of Little Current purchased the building and adjacent parking lot from Public Works Canada about 30 years ago.)
But last Wednesday was the post office’s moment to shine and be acknowledged.
It has been repurposed as one of four ‘Community Hubs’ by Canada Post: the only one in Ontario as this new model is rolled out. (The others are in Fort Qu’Appelle in Saskatchewan, High Prairie in Alberta and Membertou on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.)
“Little Current and the other three new Canada Post ‘Community Hubs’ are deemed to be labs for future upgrades in more communities,” explained Holly Gill, Canada Post’s manager for retail optimization. Ms. Gill was one of the visitors from Ottawa on hand for the open house.
“We’re actually looking for feedback from staff, hearing from customers. We want to see how the Electric Vehicle (EV) charger is utilized, how often,” Ms. Gill added.
As part of the Community Hub upgrade, Canada Post has installed two EV charging stations in the adjacent parking lot. (As of last Wednesday, the EV chargers had been used five times in their first month in use, likely representative of the electronic vehicles in use locally before the tourist season gets underway.)
Ms. Gill stressed that the changes made to enhance the flow of mail products in the newly conceived post office have been made with the local business community in mind.
While the open house included snacks and gifts, there is little doubt that the star of the show that day was Little Current artist Duncan Pheasant, two of whose paintings were chosen to brand the post office’s new look, both inside and out.
Mr. Pheasant had another engagement and arrived mid-way through the open house but once he was there, he became the centre of attention for the Canada Post officials.
Melissa Levesque, Canada Post’s retail network manager for Northern and Indigenous communities, was particularly proud of the fact that Little Current had been chosen as one of the four, pilot projects. Ms. Gill is an Indigenous person who makes her home in her community of Atikamesksheng Anishnawbeck First Nation near the west end of the City of Greater Sudbury.
“I was so pleased that they went with my recommendation,” she said. “I had explained that Manitoulin Island is populated by Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, working together, and then I saw Duncan’s (Pheasant) work at the Perivale Art Gallery in Spring Bay. Gallery owner/curator Shannon McMullen knows Duncan well: she told me his work would be perfect in the Community Hub postal outlet because he’s a local artist, lives in Little Current (he’s a member of the M’Chigeeng First Nation), he works for the town (retiring this winter after more than 30 years) and he’s the Zamboni driver!” (Editor’s note: ‘Zamboni’ is a trademarked name and the ice surfacing device used at the NEMI Recreation Centre is not that make but the term is often used to generalize because of the brand’s popularity.)
“And all Duncan’s work has a story, that he writes on the back of each painting,” Ms. Levesque further explained about her enthusiasm about the two paintings that Canada Post chose to purchase from the Perivale Gallery.
The new-look post office is open concept in design with the “box lobby” repositioned in such a way so as to also allow for a long wall of parcel boxes of various sizes.
Because of the proliferation of mail order packages currently appearing in postal outlets, and to improve retail customer flow at the single service kiosk that remains, post office clients now find a key to a particular box in their mailbox.
They walk around the corner, find the identified box, retrieve their parcel and leave the parcel box key behind. Parcels can be picked up 24 hours a day as the parcel delivery wall, like the box lobby, remains open for customers’ use.
Retail customer Gerlinde Goodwin happened to be retrieving a parcel when Ms. Gill was explaining the idea of better assisting the business community. Ms. Goodwin, who operates a home-based business, was enthusiastic about the solution of quick, no-lining up, parcel pickup that she had just experienced.
Visitors were checking to see which businesses had as of that day been added to the interactive business and service directory mounted just past the front door, relaxing in the comfortable chair that is part of the new look and visiting the new display of office supplies available to purchase at the service kiosk.
But through all of this, artist Duncan Pheasant remained the focus of attention.
Jenny Waters, manager of the design team, that included Graeme Fleming, asked Mr. Pheasant where the ideas for his painting originate.
Mr. Pheasant, referring to one of his paintings that has been rendered larger and is mounted inside the new office, observed that is an eagle, “a thunderbird, which is part of our culture.” It is titled ‘The Eagle-Migizi.’
He went on to explain that he had seen the late Norval Morriseau interviewed and that the founder of the Woodland School of Art had explained that he had had a vision, a dream, where he’d seen all of his future work laid out before him.
“I had that same vision, “Mr. Pheasant said gently, “it was all there, like a long hall: paintings, sculptures, everything.” He became emotional at the memory and explained this had been a significant moment for him.
As for the descriptions that Ms. Levesque found so compelling, Mr. Pheasant explained that, “when I finish a painting, I stand back, look at it, and say to myself ‘this is what this means!’ Sometimes the descriptions are like automatic writing, and I have to write fast to catch it and get it down. The hand has to be fast following the stream of thinking and sometimes it’s hard to write that quickly.”
The description on the original of the large mural-style landscape mounted on the outside of the building in an 8’ by 18’ format explains that, “the land has spirit and we are the land, the rock pulses with energy and movement that we cannot detect. The land shows itself in the form of a rock or landscape, many times like a face; the land keeps us alive, the trees speak and share moments, they live without our help. They are a community and we show them respect. Then there is the everlasting sky, all others beneath him, we offer prayers to the four winds and all directions. We say we don’t think about these things. We know all these things.” This painting is titled, ‘We are the land.’
That is the philosophy behind the outdoor art now adorning this 75-year-old waterfront edifice, in all likelihood a somewhat different vision than would have been expressed at the building’s initial opening in the late 1940s.
But on purely practical grounds, designer Graeme Fleming is very proud of the new look: “space was a challenge, but that was good. We were able to keep it bright with Duncan’s artwork on the outside and inside of the building, helping bridge that this is now both a post office and a community hub.”
“We were able to use modern features, especially respecting accessibility (the new single front door is amply wide for wheelchairs). “Accessibility extends to improvements for staff in their behind-the-scenes work environment.”
“The staff here takes pride in their workplace so, for me, that makes it a big success,” he happily observed.
For her part, Ms. Levesque, a quarter-century veteran with Canada Post, observed that, “I couldn’t believe the volume of mail products that pass through this post office,” another indication that the Little Current Post Office was a prime candidate for a more efficient upgrade.
