{"id":582028,"date":"2026-04-04T16:23:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T16:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/582028\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T16:23:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T16:23:16","slug":"eastern-ontarians-worried-as-canada-post-considers-cutting-door-to-door-delivery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/582028\/","title":{"rendered":"Eastern Ontarians worried as Canada Post considers cutting door-to-door delivery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\" alt=\"Text to Speech Icon\" width=\"44\" height=\"44\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Listen to this article<\/p>\n<p>Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n<p>The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n<p>Canada Post&#8217;s plan to eliminate regular door-to-door delivery is causing many eastern Ontarians to worry about the future accessibility of their mail service.<\/p>\n<p>The proposed change is part of a transformation plan the crown corporation <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/canada-post-submits-plan-to-feds-9.6973733\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">submitted in November<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>In a March 30 news release, Canada Post said it has<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/business\/canada-post-community-mailboxes-questions-9.7148787\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> received a directive<\/a> from the federal government to start moving forward with the plan, beginning with consultations with bargaining agents for unionized workers represented by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW).<\/p>\n<p>The proposed changes also include plans to modernize its post office network, amend standards for letter mail and reduce overhead costs.<\/p>\n<p>Yet rural residents in places like Renfrew County worry it could be hard to access community mailboxes, particularly if they don&#8217;t have public transit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome people don\u2019t have vehicles, so they pay a neighbour to take them to take them to town once every two weeks to get groceries and to pay the bills,\u201d said Peter Emon, a councillor with the county. <\/p>\n<p>\u201c[If you] take away door-to-door \u2026 and go to the super boxes, our folks may not have the ability to get to those.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Peter Emon, Renfrew County warden, February 4, 2023\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775319796_583_default.jpg\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.793594306049822\" data-cy=\"image-img\"\/>Peter Emon, a councillor with the County of Renfrew, says accessing community mailboxes could be difficult for rural residents in his area \u2014 particularly those without vehicles \u2014 as the county doesn&#8217;t have public transit or regular ride-hailing programs.<br \/>\n (Guy Quenneville\/CBC)<\/p>\n<p>Many Renfrew County residents still rely on door delivery to get cheques and medical information from their doctors, Emon said.<\/p>\n<p>The proposal is a \u201cstab in the back\u201d to communities that have lobbied politicians at all levels of government for years to save the postal service, he added.<\/p>\n<p>According to Canada Post\u2019s release, home delivery will still be available for those who face barriers to accessing parcels and mail due to functional limitations or health conditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In a release from CUPW, union\u2019s president Jan Simpson said Monday&#8217;s announcement was \u201canother attempt to derail our negotiations process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>How have urban centres responded?<\/p>\n<p>The proposed elimination of door-to-door delivery has drawn a mixed response in urban areas in eastern Ontario, some of whom still rely on the service.<\/p>\n<p>Evelyne Power still receives door delivery at her home in Ottawa&#8217;s east end, and says switching to community mailboxes could cause safety concerns if they aren\u2019t maintained properly.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What kind of priority is it going to be for clearing out the area around [them]?&#8221; she asked. &#8220;Will the rest of the system change to make it work well? Or is it just going to be another kind of irritant?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Others like Susy Mailer say switching to community mailboxes could <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/business\/federal-government-1-billion-loan-canada-post-9.7080922\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">free up resources<\/a> for Canada Post to ensure people across Canada still have daily mail service.<\/p>\n<p>Mailer uses a community mailbox in her west Ottawa neighbourhood and says she makes a daily trip to retrieve her mail.<\/p>\n<p>While she supports the decision to eliminate door delivery, Mailer also understands the concerns of rural customers, adding a &#8220;one-size-fits-all&#8221; delivery service doesn&#8217;t make sense.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet&#8217;s focus first on our civic areas and maybe just make all of the city of Ottawa to be consistent,&#8221; Mailer said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So if we\u2019re all in a municipality, we should all have community mailboxes. And then [we can] see what kind of savings did we get from doing that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>No timeline yet <\/p>\n<p>In a statement to the CBC, Canada Post said it wants to conclude consultations with its unions regarding the proposed changes before sharing more details publicly.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The crown corporation did not provide a timeline for when the changes could occur.<\/p>\n<p>Canada Post says it will continue to update Canadians, customers, employees and other stakeholders on its transformation plans, and will provide notice to those affected by the changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-582028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}