Jesse Cole
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
muskokaregion.com
If you’re a business owner, you’ve probably been impacted by the strike at Canada Post, but perhaps none in Muskoka have been as acutely impacted as Teresa McBride.
McBride, who is a wedding officiant, small business owner and a stand-in Mrs. Claus during Christmas, has found herself uniquely affected by the labour dispute.
“I’m hit three different ways,” McBride said of her businesses, which rely on Canada Post.
“I’m affected as an officiant because I have to mail in wedding licenses. Then there’s Muskoka Gift Box, which is an online business affected by shipping,” McBride said. “Lastly, there is my role as Mrs. Jessica Claus. I’m affected by that because kids write me Christmas letters. I’m not sure how they’ll get to me or how I’ll respond if the strikes still on.”
It’s unlikely McBride’s Christmas cosplay will be impacted given the fact the union representing Canada Post workers announced a transition to a rotating strike on Oct. 11 after a nationwide strike started Sept. 25. Still, McBride said this disruption, as well as last year’s, has pinched her pocketbook.
“My sales have dropped. People don’t want to pay the extra expense of having to Purolator it,” McBride said. “Because of the strike, I haven’t had as many orders. I’m down around 25 to 50 per cent of my delivery sales.”
Peter Denley sympathizes with McBride. The National Director of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers’ (CUPW) Central Region, which includes Muskoka, said the shift to a rotating strike intends to minimize disruption while highlighting the importance of local post offices, particularly in rural locales.
“(So) far what we’ve decided to do is show people what it’s like when we close a rural post office in a small community, like Huntsville,” Denley said, adding the rotating strike will mean post offices nationwide will alternate closures, effectively closing Huntsville’s location roughly once per month.
“The disruption to Huntsville will be minimal,” Denley said. “What’s important is that it lets people know what it’s like when they don’t have their post office. It’s one day of inconvenience but imagine if it was forever.”
In a statement issued earlier this month, Canada Post addressed the rotating strike, saying it would cause challenges and delays.
“Shutting down and restarting parts of our integrated national network with rotating strikes challenges our ability to provide reliable service to customers,” the statement reads. “As a result, all service guarantees remain suspended, and customers should expect delays.”
Rural and remote
Concern over potential changes to rural mail service is among the reasons CUPW members are back on the picket-line.
In late September, the Government of Canada announced its intention to transform Canada Post, hoping to address the Crown corporation’s declining revenue. Included in the government’s proposed measures are changes to the postal network, including the lifting of moratoriums on closing rural post offices and conversions to community mailboxes. These closures and conversions, if implemented, would impact rural towns like Huntsville in particular, Denley said.
“[Rural Canadians] depend on the post office more than anyone because they don’t have an alternative,” he said. “They get their mail delivered to the door and they can’t always afford to drive into town every day or every second day.”
McBride knows all about that. During wedding season, she officiates around 80 weddings, each requiring a marriage license to be mailed. Recently she made the switch to UPS, requiring her to drive to Bracebridge to ship the licenses.
“It adds up. You’re going back and forth. I can write some of it off, but its still out-of-pocket up front until tax time,” McBride said.
Metroland reached out to Canada Post for comment, but in lieu of an interview they issued a statement saying the postal company would implement the proposed measures with protecting rural services as a priority.
Support over frustration
Despite her frustration with Canada Post’s disruption, McBride said she’ll go back to the federal mail service as soon as possible, citing not just the increased costs of alternatives but support for the postal workers themselves as deciding factors.
“The staff is amazing. They know me so well,” McBride said, adding that in rural locations postal worker often become a member of the community.
“The worker that delivers my mail is great. I was sick, she came to my door and said ‘Hey, you haven’t collected your mail. Is everything OK?’ We use postal workers beyond just deliveries. You make friends with them. They know their neighbourhood. If there’s something wrong, they’re usually the first contact for somebody to know. We’re losing that.”
Jesse Cole is a freelance reporter writing with Metroland. This Huntsville Forester article was written under the Local Journalism Initiative. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
