KAGAWONG—The Canada Post Corporation has outlined several major changes to operations at the Kagawong Post Office, and while they have not indicated in their correspondence to Billings council any thought of this being a step towards closure, this is one of the concerns of members of council. Council also has concerns with one of the proposed community mailbox locations being looked at.
“My concern is that all of this is a step towards closing the post office,” stated Councillor Dave Hillyard.
“I agree,” stated Councillor Vince Grogan.
Councillor Hillyard explained that he lives on Pleasant Valley Road, which is the border end of the township in terms of Canada Post services in Billings. “My mailing address is actually for Gore Bay. We have had trouble getting parcels to our address, although the post office in Gore Bay does send them to our address.”
Mayor Bryan Barker says in the background information from Canada Post on the changes being made to services, it sounds like improvements are going to be made. “I think they came to the realization that the (Kagawong) post office is too small to handle all packages and sharing home with the post office services.”
As for the changes being made being a step towards closure, “they are not saying that here.”
“It is a good report, but it is concerning,” said Councillor Hillyard.
Mayor Barker read background information from Canada Post on the changes being looked at. Canada Post notified the township that they are planning to upgrade the post office boxes in the Kagawong post office and to enhance service by doing away with old PO box addresses and enabling customers to use their residential or civic address for their mailings moving forward as of September 2023.
The Kagawong Post office has 170 post office boxes, which are completely claimed, explained Canada Post. Since all the post office boxes are occupied and there is no further space, this has led to 59 general delivery points of call at the office, requiring these customers to retrieve their mail and parcels from the postal clerk, it was explained.
This project will reduce the number of post office boxes in the post office to 163, and the customers who will no longer have a post office box, as well as those previously receiving mail through general delivery, will have their mail and parcels delivered to community mailboxes installed at several locations in the community beginning in September 2023, council was informed.
Phil Rogers, media relations spokesperson for Canada Post told The Expositor after the meeting, “To better serve communities across Canada, our intent is always to make our postal services as efficient and accessible as possible. At this present time, there are not enough PO boxes at the Kagawong Post Office to serve every customer in the community. As a result, several customers are assigned general delivery as a mode of delivery, which means they must pick up their mail and parcels from the clerk at the post office’s retail counter.”
Mr. Rogers said, “to better serve Kagawong residents and optimize mail delivery, we are currently working on installing three community mailbox sites to serve customers that are furthest from the post office. The sites will be located on Main Street at the intersection of Manitou Lane, on Arda Road just south of Highway 540 and on Newburn Road near Highway 540.”
“I can see accidents taking place at this (Arda Road) site,” stated Councillor Hillyard at the council meeting. “It’s across from our dumpsite, and I can see people leaving the dumpsite and going across the road to their mailbox and getting hit by vehicles going past (on both sides of the highway). I am not happy with this. Can we get feedback on that?”
Canada Post assigns a mailing/postal address for the purposes of mail delivery. The addressing authority (municipality, band, province, District, etc.) assigns a civic (9-1-1) address to identify a physical location. In some cases, the mailing/postal address already matches the civic (9-1-1) address, however, in some areas, like Kagawong, it does not. Canada post’s civic addressing program is the matching of a physical address to its mailing address. This matching gives customers one consistent address to serve both purposes and helps Canada Post improve efficiency and accuracy of mail and parcel delivery.
“We are upgrading the PO boxes at the post office and reorganizing them into alpha-numeric order, making sorting and retrieving mail simpler,” said Mr. Rogers. “As a result of these changes, all residents will be able to use their civic address as their mailing/postal address. For residents with PO boxes as their assigned mode of delivery, mail and parcels addressed with their civic address will be delivered to their postal boxes.”
“Customers who will no longer be assigned a PO box will have their mail and parcels delivered to our community mailboxes,” said Mr. Rogers. “This project will reduce the number of PO boxes in the post office from 170 to 163. Carded items will continue to be available for pick up at the Kagawong Post Office by providing a valid government issued photo identification.”
“Customers that are assigned delivery to a community mailbox and who reside less than half a kilometre away from the site will now have parcel delivery to their doors,” said Mr. Rogers.
“Will our current post office stay, or will all these packages and mail go to Gore Bay?” Councillor Vince Grogan.
“This is a very good point,” Billings clerk/CAO Emily Dance said. “I did ask the question, and they (Canada Post) said they wouldn’t be putting this type of money into upgrades if they were going to close the current post office.”
“That is my only concern. We have people that have always supported the post office, and to get their Amazon packages now would they have to go the post office in Gore Bay to collect their packages?” asked Councillor Grogan.
Councillor Hillyard added, “there is something special about going to the post office. I would hate to lose that part of our culture and heritage. We have a good post office and a great postmaster. It would be sad to lose any of these services.”
Councillor Michael Hunt, who is the Kagawong Canada Post Office postmaster had declared a conflict of interest and did not participate in discussion on the issue.
Mr. Rogers said that “at least 30 days prior to the implementation, affected customers will receive a letter from Canada Post explaining these upcoming changes. The letter will specify the customer’s civic mailing address, information on their newly assigned PO box or CMB. Customers will be asked to provide a valid government issued photo identification when pick up their CMB keys.”
“We appreciate our customers’ understanding as we work to improve service. Our local operations team is ready and available to address any mail delivery issue,” said Mr. Rogers. He added, “if customers have questions regarding their mail delivery, they can contact Canada Post’s customer service team online at canadapost.ca/support or by telephone at 1-866-607-6301 TTY: 1-800-267-2797) and their inquiries will be directed to our local team.”
