Dave Scharf, Centretown News
Gailene Green’s community mailbox is frequently frozen shut.Armed with hot water, de-icing solutions and a lot of patience, Ottawa residents are desperate to get their mail from frozen-over Canada Post community mailboxes. And while some succeed, others have not been so lucky.
Canada Post phased out door-to-door delivery in October 2014 in favour of a community mailbox program. The plan was suspended last fall for reassessment following the election of the Liberal government.
“I’ve watched my neighbours resort to using blowtorches just to get into their mailboxes and as dangerous as that can be, what else can we do,” says Gailene Green, a resident at Leslie Park. She’s been unable to get her mail three times due to frozen locks.
“It’s absurd how this is what we’ve been reduced to,” she says.
Rapid cycles of thawing and freezing mixed with rain are mainly to blame. However, Canada Post claimed partial responsibility, as some locks on recently installed models are more susceptible to freezing. Kansas-based company Florence Manufacturing won the bid to manufacture these models in 2014.
Canada Post workers have been working on de-icing locks on a priority basis and are asking residents to bear with them.
“We certainly apologize for the current situation because it is not ideal and we are taking it very seriously,“ says Anick Losier, spokesperson for Canada Post. “That’s why we have our teams working overtime to make sure people have access to their mail.”
According to Losier, of the 250,000 people using community mailboxes in Ottawa, only a few hundred have filed complaints over frozen locks. This problem has primarily affected areas in Nepean, Westboro and Kanata.
“Not to minimize the issue but if you look at the scope of the problem, you’ll see that our mailboxes in general are winter resistant,” says Losier. “If you look at other places like Winnipeg, it’s been -40 C and in some cases -50 C but we never had an issue with the community mailboxes there. It’s this rapid freezing weather here that’s been doing a number on us.”
Canada Post is urging residents to not use short-term fixes such as “heat, lock de-icers or any other product to free it, as this may damage the lock” and further impede access. Instead, residents should contact Canada Post’s customer service at 1-866-607-6301 or fill out a form at its website.
“I’ve filed a complaint four times but every time I’ve inquired, it says the problem’s been solved,” says Green. “My still-frozen community mailbox begs to differ and they can’t just expect me to wait around for them to fix it, only for the problem to pop back up.”
The problem is not unique to Ottawa. Similar problems have been reported in Oakville, Saguenay and Charlottetown since late November.
One other barrier for residents is the amount of snow they have to climb over once snowplows pass by their community mailboxes says Tanja Neuvenon-Del Bosco, media co-ordinator for the Ottawa Central Park Community Association.
“I don’t know if they just disregard them but it usually takes one or two days for Canada Post to clear up the entrance,” she says. “It’s understandable because it is winter, but we’ve got enough frozen hurdles like car doors and slick roads. I can’t imagine what it’s like for the elderly who have to deal with all this.”
While some residents wonder about the fate of their mail, Losier says they should not worry.
“We’ve been delivering to community mailboxes for over 30 years and they’ve gone through all kinds of winters,” she says. “For a lot of people this is their first winter with the new community mailboxes so yes, it’s a transition. But things like this don’t happen very often and we’re doing whatever we can to help.”
Green says she is less optimistic.
“Don’t get me wrong, I like the community mailboxes. But I highly doubt Kansas’s mailbox standards meet the requirements of Canadian winters. And we’re not even in the dead of winter yet.”