Open letter to André Ouellet, president, Canada Post

Remember my letter of May 5 explaining that as the territorial capital we have an unusually busy post office for a community this size and we badly need a second computer terminal installed this summer when the retrofit is done to the branch?

Well, I didn’t hear back, but I guess somebody saw my fax, because in a strange round-about way, your regional manager, David Craig, buttonholed a friend of mine last week and tried to justify not doing anything to deal with the major delays we are experiencing.

He said we are not going to get a second major terminal because:

1. The current one is supposedly used at 60 per cent capacity.
2. A second person can’t be spared to run it.

A couple of thoughts:

1. I don’t understand the “60-per-cent capacity theory.” How come it’s at 100 per cent capacity whenever people are there, and there seem to be people there most of the day?
2. Today the computer failed completely so that the only post office in the territorial capital wasn’t functioning at all. Don’t you find that a bit embarrassing? Wouldn’t that be another reason for having a second computer terminal?
3. If delays are a constant problem, if customers are increasingly unhappy, if the capital’s population is expanding every year, and if the likely remedy would be to provide one more employee and a terminal, wouldn’t it make more sense to incorporate those two items in this summer’s changes?

Mr. Ouellet, our being a long way from Ottawa doesn’t make us hillbillies. Our remoteness does, however, accentuate the need for an extra-efficient postal service here. Your employees in Iqaluit are hard-working but underequipped, while your customers are frustrated with delays at the mailing source.

I may have an overly suspicious nature, but today it was interesting to note that just when the computer was down and out, and a sign hung on the post office door saying “Closed, sorry for the inconvenience,” our regional manager left town for Yellowknife, where he doesn’t have to hear our frustration, nor experience our line-ups for himself. Is this a message from Canada Post, or what?

Nick Newbery
Iqaluit