Several campaigns in Calgary’s upcoming municipal election are contending with challenges created by the Canada Post labour dispute, with thousands of flyers going undelivered or sitting in a warehouse.
Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) have been embroiled in a lengthy labour dispute, with CUPW announcing last week that postal workers would neither process nor deliver unaddressed flyers, or neighbourhood mail.
“It’s been almost four weeks since we provided Canada Post with our latest global offers, and we’ve yet to hear anything meaningful in response,” CUPW said in a statement. “With Canada Post abandoning bargaining once again, it gives us no choice but to ramp up the pressure.”
With a municipal election less than a month away in Calgary, the situation has had an impact on candidates’ and campaigns’ ability to get their message to voters.
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The Calgary Party, one of three parties registered in the upcoming election, said it had 500,000 campaign flyers stuck in various Canada Post warehouses across the city due to the labour dispute.
According to the party’s mayoral candidate Brian Thiessen, the party requested an exemption for political materials across Alberta, which was declined.
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“It was a real opportunity to set aside differences and ensure that the public got to hear from all the candidates,” Thiessen told Global News. “Pretty disappointed in the postal workers. I think they could’ve done a better job with us.”
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Around 300,000 flyers were eventually returned to the party, Thiessen said, but it would cost up to $80,000 to have 200,000 flyers reprinted and sent through another service.
“They had divided them into warehouses all over the city so they were unable to locate them,” he said. “The salt in the wound is they haven’t given our money back.”
In a statement, Canada Post said it is “disappointed” with CUPW’s decision to suspend neighbourhood mail and noted the move “impacts thousands of Canadian businesses.”
It noted campaign flyers are considered “unaddressed mail.”
“We understand the degree to which this ban on Neighbourhood Mail is impacting many businesses and organizations, however this is a legal strike activity that CUPW chose to undertake,” said the statement from Canada Post. “Flyers currently in the network are being securely held for the duration of the delivery ban.”
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Communities First is also feeling the effects of the ban, with thousands of flyers for its candidates also being held by Canada Post.
The party’s Ward 4 candidate, Jeremy Wong, said he is working to get flyers reprinted and sent to households, but added it would be a difficult task for volunteers.
“The scale is huge,” Wong told Global News. “There’s 100,000 people in my ward and 40,000 households, so imagine using volunteers to go house to house delivering all those flyers. It would take 100 volunteers to do that over a period of time.”
Jeff Davison’s mayoral campaign said it too will be looking to volunteers to help as its also been impacted by the neighbourhood mail suspension.
“We are welcoming anyone who has extra time to reach out to us if they can help deliver literature, knock on doors or deliver lawn signs,” a campaign spokesperson said in a statement.
The Jeromy Farkas mayoral campaign, meanwhile, said it hasn’t been impacted yet but is “watching it closely.”
Calgary mayor Jyoti Gondek said her campaign will be unaffected by the suspension as they are using a different service.
“We thought if something like this happens, it’s going to be a major disruption to getting the word out, so we weren’t relying on Canada Post,” she told reporters on Monday.
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Elections Calgary officials confirmed its voter information cards won’t be affected by the labour dispute as the mail-outs include designated addresses.
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