Nunavut community frustrated with temporary post office closure

Rankin Inlet’s post office scheduled to re-open July 16

Rankin Inlet’s post office closed on Thursday, July 11, due to a staffing shortage. Canada Post said the office should re-open again on July 16. (File photo)

By Sarah Rogers

A sign on the post office’s front door invites the public to apply for work. (Photo by Noel Kaludjak)

Rankin Inlet’s post office has closed temporarily while Canada Post looks to hire new staff for the local office.

The post office closed on Thursday, July 11, for “staffing reasons beyond our control,” Canada Post said in an email to Nunatsiaq News.

A sign posted on the post office’s front door invited job applicants to apply for work.

“We are earnestly searching for a full-time employee, including reaching out to community leaders, and we believe the hiring process will be successful in short time,” the agency said on July 12.

“We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.”

Canada Post said the local post office would re-open with full service next Tuesday, July 16.

But residents of the Kivalliq community say Tuesday is too long a closure for people waiting on important deliveries.

“Rankin has daily flights [with] so much mail in and out,” one resident posted to Facebook. “[It’s] not fair to those waiting on their cheques, or other important mail.”

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(17) Comments:

  1. Posted by Jeremy Roth on

    Holy…talk about a motivated society. Guess it was just easier to stay home.

    • Posted by More to the story on

      That has nothing to do with it.

  2. Posted by Seen it all on

    A huge problem is the way the citizens of Rankin Inlet treat the post office staff. Winnipeg will mark off parcels as having been delivered to Rankin once processed, however, that’s in Wpg and as a result, they can take an extra day or two to actually arrive. Customers then berate the staff. Canada Post doesn’t pay a lot, after a while, who needs the unwarranted stress?
    People need to be more kind to those in the service industry and stop acting like they deserve special treatment.
    Do unto others …..

    • Posted by Rankin resident on

      I totally agree with you! The news article is focused more on how this will impact the community and less about the way the workers are treated. Firstly, customer service is a shit job especially when it relates to peoples mail and items they ordered. The post office needs to pay these workers more. But that aside, we treat these workers like crap. Something damaged, we blame them. Something not arrive on time, we blame them. Something showing as delivered but no slip, we blame them. I get the frustration, I feel it too but it’s not their fault yet they get treated awfully. I don’t blame them for leaving; crap Monty and crap treatment. I’ve felt the frustration of my packages being damaged etc and I’m feeling the frustration of not having my packages that were showing as delivered over 1.5 weeks ago. However, I’ll deal with it reflect on what we can do better. Stop blaming everything else but yourselves. We need to stop being assholes and treat our workers better.

  3. Posted by Miners on

    With the new Meliadine Gold Mine now operating, many are being recruited for vacant positions

  4. Posted by Witheld on

    People don’t give a crap about others in Rankin. People leave all the service jobs and sit at home broke and hungry rather then deal with vicious service snobs.

    • Posted by Cant believe on

      Dishing others for leaving jobs? That’s how to continue viscous cycle of lateral shaming. Most people are hard working and good people. Your judging only small margin of people.

      • Posted by Witheld on

        Not blaming anyone for leaving a job that deals with servicing the public. Surprising we can keep the airport, cargo, radio, schools etc staffed too many heartless people going around abusing them

  5. Posted by Rankin on

    So currently in Rankin there is no post office, no clean drinking water, the area around the Northern reeks of diesel due to a fuel spill, and you’re lucky if you can make a cell phone call. At least there is a new dirt walking track.

  6. Posted by Rethink on

    There was a bit of a mass exodus of long time employees at this location. I don’t know their stories but from what I gather this has more to do with issues around bad management than anything else.

    • Posted by More to the atory on

      They are complainers about everything. We will get better service now.

      • Posted by Rethink on

        Funny comment, but not accurate. They had some long term employees who put years into their jobs and were very good at them. You can’t easily replace people like that. It will take at the very least a year to get the post office running smoothly again. And it was running smoothly, except for last September. If you remember it, that’s the kind of donkey parade we are about to see again. You will know what I mean soon enough.

        • Posted by Really on

          Quote: “You’ll know what I mean soon enough”

          So you’ve already sentenced anyone who might get the job as being unsuitable before they even start.
          That is very sad. You should feel like the type of person you come off as, very badly.

          I for one will welcome the new workers and give them a chance before passing judgment. It is time to cut out this attitude of bashing workers just because it brings you sick joy.

          • Posted by Rethink on

            “So you’ve already sentenced anyone who might get the job as being unsuitable before they even start.” No actually, but I do know who the ones who screwed the place up all to hell last fall, it was brutal. People given the wrong packages routinely and consistently as the individual working the station seemed stoned out of his mind. The so called ‘boss’ phoning Iqaluit to gossip about employees she didn’t like, for all to hear. Totally unprofessional. So I base my judgement on that. I truly hope they are reading this. To be fair the lone fellow who is working right now is doing a fine job. I hope they leave him too it and don’t come down for another witch hunt.

  7. Posted by Observer on

    Why is it that the story focused on the loss of service to the customers and not the way customers were being complete jerks to the staff until they justifiably got fed up and said top hell with it and left? Canada Post staff who have filled in temporarily at Rankin Inlet all say the same thing: people in Rankin are abusive and acting like asses toward post office staff. Some of those employees worked in other Nunavut communities so there’s no explanation about them not knowing what the culture is like or what living in the north is like or the the other common excuses people use to explain why someone can’t stand working in a community instead of the obvious: the attitude of too many people in the community is toxic.

    • Posted by False Narrative on

      Why do people keep making the assumption that this is what happened? We all know that there were staff (at least one) who was chronically miserable and that many people in the community dreaded going to the post office for that reason. But this narrative of abuse toward to staff keeps getting flogged. I have never seem anyone be abusive toward the post office staff, though i am sure it happened. Why is it that a collection of long term staff, who had been there for many years, decide to suddenly quit? I propose that this was a management issue. Why isn’t anyone discussing that?

  8. Posted by Oh lord on

    Please! I do not know why, but a great deal of ignorant and racist people live in Rankin Inlet, and no, I’m not referring to just outsiders. I have personally witnessed the abuse the postal staff, all service industry workers suffer at the hands of some of these folks. We know who they are because they don’t even attempt to hide it, and at the end of the day, that’s their issue to deal with.
    I have seen people expecting their parcel of cannabis to arrive being told that it has not come in yet, they then freak out on the staff, because lord knows, you don’t want to miss out on your drugs! That’s called delusional paranoia.
    People of Rankin Inlet, it’s time to knock those chips off your shoulders and understand that we are all people and all deserving of respect. You get treated like you treat others. This town needs a wake up call!

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