Dinosaurs & Other Exotic Beasts

Canada Post is no longer the efficient, proud and respected federal agency it once was. For that matter, postal services in many countries, not just Canada, find themselves on hard times, losing money at an accelerated rate as a result of changing habits and new technologies that insultingly speak of regular postal mail as "snail mail", when there are electronic messaging capabilities that far outdo in utility and timeliness what regular post can now achieve.

And, as well, private-industry parcel- and -package-delivery services exist now whose smooth functionality in swift delivery and whose competitive edge on pricing leave Canada Post in the dust. A post office doesn't plan to make money and isn't designed to make a profit. What its mandate represents is the expedient and trustworthy delivery of a nation's mail, to keep people in touch and business afloat.

At one time Canada Post excelled in doing just that, at an affordable price.

That time is not now. Services have deteriorated even while energetic union demands have ensured higher wages and better settlements for Canada Post workers. Frustratingly, the union also focuses on workplace safety to a degree that serves all too often to disaccommodate clients. When regulations are in effect that, for example, rural dwellers must place their mailboxes in excruciatingly precise areas to accommodate ease of function for mail deliverers.

Steps leading to peoples' front doors must be of a certain height; not less, not more, or mail delivery will be cut off. If there is a porch, a protective railing must be installed for the safety of the postal delivery person. If there is a dog at the home the Post Office must be assured that it poses no risk to the mail deliverer. Snarling dogs with an instant distrust of a uniform must be nowhere near the front of the house.

Letters and parcels that at one time took one or two days from one part of the country to another now take a full week for receipt.

The cost of mailing parcels, once in varied classifications like first, second and third-class and priced accordingly, have gone the way of the Dodo. The Corporation that was operating in the black not all that long ago has more latterly been looking dolefully at $1-billion annual losses. Government is now looking at privatizing mail delivery. Private industry with its penchant toward profit might just do the trick.

Postal delivery that was taken for granted twice a day, then once a day, then cutting out Saturdays, is now considering every-other-day delivery. Posties that used to go door-to-door to delivery mail into waiting mailboxes on peoples' front porches are able now to drive neat little trucks over to group mailboxes, where people must trudge up the street from their homes to retrieve their mail from those group boxes.

Truly a pity, all of that. Regular posted mail is no longer reliable, it is expensive and a sad relic of an earlier era. More and more of Canada Post's revenues go to its workforce, while service excellence is now an unknown, and forgotten quantity.

Pity, that.