Post office blames ‘severe’ weather for Igloolik mail delays
Canada Post says residents may start receiving backlogged mail this week
Flight cancellations due to bad weather have contributed to a pile-up of mail waiting to be delivered to Igloolik, says Dale LeClair, director of Indigenous and northern affairs for Canada Post. (File photo)
People in Igloolik who have waited weeks for their mail to arrive may soon see packages in their mailboxes.
Dale LeClair, the director of Indigenous and northern affairs for Canada Post, said the company expects to catch up this week with mail delivery to Igloolik after “severe weather and other travel issues” over the past month resulted in cancelled flights and a backlog of mail in Iqaluit.
“Our goal is to always provide a consistent and reliable mail service. We are unfortunately at the mercy of Mother Nature, the ever-increasing e-shopping trends and capacity issues to move the mail throughout our network,” LeClair said in an email to Nunatsiaq News.
“Rest assured that our teams along with The North West Company have been working on contingency plans to ensure the security of mail and delivery as soon as we can get it to the post office.”
Some Igloolik residents had shared their frustrations on social media last week about how long they had been waiting to receive their mail. Some said they had received notifications over four weeks ago that their mail was in transit to the capital from Montreal, but it still hadn’t arrived at the local Northern Igloolik post office.
In an Oct. 28 post on its Facebook page, Northern Igloolik acknowledged those concerns.
“While we understand the frustration, we’d like to remind post office customers that Northern team members have no control over what mail arrives at the store or when it arrives. We process your incoming mail as quickly and diligently as possible,” read the post.
Northern Igloolik went on to say that customers experiencing delays can check the tracking number of their mail, contact the sender or reach out to Canada Post’s customer care services.
Up here in Coppermine, the postmaster gets blamed for “lost” items which may just be delayed ! Ppl are paranoid about their mail and they don’t have the capacity to vote !
Can not blame this on only the weather. There has not been over a month without a flight in, there have been nice days, if there is a back log stuck in Iqaluit put the mail on a freighter or something then. the situation in Igloolik isnt that the staff are stealing the mail it is that the mail is not even getting to Igloolik to be processed. no… why it is not making it is the issue. and seems the 3 groups responsible (Canada Post, Northern Store, and Canadian North) all keep playing the blame game.
But there is hope, mail has started to get processed again.
Blame it on global warming
In Igloolik the post office is located in the Northern Store. Unfortunately because we Inuit lack education and skills, transients come up and take over management and jobs. It is unfortunately due to bad store management that post office issues have come to a head like this. Did they expect us to just roll over and play dead while they have their pathetic ways with us? Long gone are those days but unfortunately transients are still too much in control here.
Thank you “Has Been Hunter” for standing up to the transients. You must have talked to the right people to get this situation fixed. I hope you can get the education and skills you need so that you can become the manager at the Northern and make sure this never happens again. And if you dont want to be the Manager then we are glad Igloolik has someone like you to make things better in some other way (other then just complain on fb).
But seriously I am sure you have valuable skills and I really hope you use them and encourage/inspire others by leading by example to help some of the other issues in Igloolik (education, recreation, hamlet council…)
Response to putting it out there. Hahaha laughing at the situation because it is so pathetic. Situation is always that locals continually get the short end of the stick in Nunavut. As for myself, high school grad from ’80s when education was education (GREC), have post second degree (NAC), am an indeterminate employee, so the comment about lack of education is Inui in general, Our GN promotes social passing, thus young Inuk “graduates” fare less than us,. We are inundated with technology, but very little output from our youth into the wage economy, Unfortunately in small towns, transients with knowledge and skills are still very much in control. Just came back from the Capital, spent my HS years there, speak one word in Inuktun and they presume you know mothing. If this keeps up, we Inui will be continually lining up welfare lines while transients live off our woes.
I totally agree with you Has Been Hunter.
All G. N. SERVICES should be withdrawn right away.
Offices locked, stores closed, flights stopped.
The proud people of Igloolik have the right to live their culture.
I am presuming you have actually discussed this with the people of Igloolik ?
There are no degrees offered by NAC. You probably have a certificate in something and in your mind think that is a degree.
Aksun, didn’t think what it was they gave me at the end of the course from NAC. But the point is that in Nunavut, our GN promotes social passing and combined with inter-generational trauma. Inui fare less in the wage economy. And in big business like Northmart, instead of training locals to be managers, these rude, selfish people come up and start running the show with detrimental effects to the community. Such is the case in Igloolik.
Postal official responsible for Nunavut mail. Do you regret awarding to the greedy heartless company in circumpolar world, Northern Stores in part of Nunavut? They keep short hours to save $$$ and I hate this company. Canada Post this company is not giving any service to Nunavummiut.
Use the Mary River bulk carriers to bring your mails
You get what you pay for and Canada Post is consistently one of the worst paying employers in the Territory. Throw in all the abuse and I’m honestly surprised it works as well as it does.
since weed has been legalized, Canada Post woes have become magnified all over the North.
We all know the problems that severe weather play throughout the North. In the last week in Cambridge Bay, ice fog has hampered scheduled flights and fresh food has become bare on the shelves. We are making due, stir fry not fresh, UHT milk instead of 2% or skim, less fruit and veggies. and yes, no mail.
This was also evident last year when one person who was freaking out thinking his order of weed was stolen, lost, or whatever, freaking out at our dedicated Canada Post Staff who had enough and both quit. causing no end of problems for everyone else, our local outlet was forced to close, then when they found workers they had limited hours and had to open in the evenings.
I hope things get better and all we can do is wait for the flights to land and learn a little more compassion for our dedicated essential workers.