Shop and ship early to avoid delays, Canada Post says

With the volatility of weather this time of year, Canada Post suggests shipping parcels and letters early this holiday season. See stories for extended hours at the Canada Post outlet in Iqaluit. (PHOTO BY STEVE DUCHARME)

Santa and the elves won’t be the only ones working overtime this Christmas.

Canada Post is expecting to deliver approximately 3,400 parcels every minute across the country by Dec. 14 as the holiday shipping season hits full stride.

In Iqaluit, that means extended hours at the local branch to handle the extra demand.

Canada Post will remain open to 7 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays until Dec. 18.

The post office will also open Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. until Dec. 19.

Its staff of nine full-time employees will be dealing with between 400 and 600 customers a day while handling hundreds of packages, according to Eugene Knapik, a Canada Post national spokesperson.

“We’re looking at a super busy holiday season this year,” he said.

The postal service is seeing about a 20 per cent increase in parcel shipping year over year, said Knapik. That’s in part because of the growing popularity of online shopping.

“We know that the postal service is important to the community in Nunavut. Lots of people order all kinds of things online. A much wider range from the North than from a lot of other parts of the country,” Knapik said.

Amazon.ca — which previously offered free shipping for orders over $25 across Nunavut — changed their policy earlier this year to make Iqaluit the only eastern Arctic community still eligible for free shipping.

According to the Canada Post website, national shipping across Canada on basic rates can take up to nine days.

And while Knapik isn’t foreseeing any delays on shipping parcels out of Iqaluit, weather may play a factor in getting packages delivered around Nunavut this holiday season.

“Usually our only challenge is with weather. Sometime we run into some nasty weather and that causes us a day or two delay in getting planes up there,” said Knapik.

“This time of year, my recommendation is not to take a chance with the weather and try to be an early bird shopper and get those things in the mail as early as possible.”

And if you haven’t gotten your wish list sent to Santa yet this year, the deadline for all North Pole bound mail is Dec. 16 to guarantee a response from the big guy before Christmas.

You can the big guy in red at this address (no postage necessary):

Santa Claus
North Pole
H0H 0H0
Canada