Post office fights congestion

MIRIAM HILL

Relief is on the way for patrons of the Iqaluit post office.

Canada Post is working to unclog the congestion both inside and in front of the building shared with the Bank of Montreal on the city’s main drag.

Doug Wright, a Canada Post trainer brought to the Iqaluit post office in November to try and solve some of the staffing and line up issues, says clients have been receiving yellow cards inside their mailboxes since the beginning of March.

“All I’m doing is compiling a database for future use if something should arise such as delivery to houses or whatever,” Wright says. He expects the information gathering will be completed by the end of April.

When people receive the yellow card in their metal box, they are instructed to go to the counter where a clerk will fill out a form including information such as the person’s house or lot number, and the names of others receiving mail in the box.

People will receive up to two notices to come to the counter and if they still haven’t provided the necessary information, they will receive an expiry notice and lose the rights to the mailbox. They will then have to collect their mail at the counter where they will be asked for the information anyway.

“It has been hectic and I know customers have been upset about the line ups, especially when they find out this card is to fill out another card they filled out three years ago. But we need a database and if something is going to happen in the future and we don’t have a database nothing is going to happen.”

People receiving mail through general delivery are being asked to provide similar information, which will also be entered into a database. Wright says he estimates about 300 people are getting their mail via general delivery, requiring individuals to go to the counter and ask the clerk to search through a massive amount of mail looking for items addressed to them.

John Caines, the national media-relations officer for Canada Post, says 700 new post boxes will be added to the Iqaluit branch in June.

Each year the post office asks people with post boxes to renew their rentals, but since there is no charge to rent a box in Iqaluit, people don’t bother filling out the forms, Wright explains, resulting in their being purged from the database.

“If we can get everyone to come in and sign a card for general delivery so I can put them in the database, if and when we get new boxes, I’m hoping it will wipe out general delivery,” he says. “That will virtually wipe out the line ups and that’s what I want to see.”

The initiative is also a means of weeding out those box-holders who can have mail delivered to them at home. Wright says tenants of the eight-storey apartment complex known as the Brown Building, for example, have about 100 post boxes in the lobby.

“They are using boxes down here that are taking boxes away from people here,” he says. “That will change.”

A contractor sorts the mail at the post office and delivers it to the complex.

“The traffic congestion in front of our building is one of our prime objectives to eliminate,” he says. This means making sure people get their mail where they should. If Brown Building tenants want a post box downtown they will have to pay for it, he adds.

Congestion inside the building is caused not only by people waiting for general delivery services, but also by people waiting to pick up parcels. Wright says there are pilot projects under way in large cities across Canada where parcels are delivered in the evenings.

“Because of the circumstances up here and the shortage of boxes, all that stuff, we’re requesting we do that here,” Wright says. “Everyone in Iqaluit works all day, there’s nobody home, so if we can convince the powers that be that it would be useful up here then we might see it.”

Caines says there are a number of options being looked at to help Iqaluit and its booming population, including a franchise location, which could have counter service and more post boxes. However, nothing has been decided.

Before anything can happen, aside from adding more post boxes, the city must finish its street naming project and assign numbers to all buildings.

“We have to wait until the city does its part first,” he says.

The city is holding a community consultation about street names on April 22.