Mayor Jim Watson and Ottawa City Council: Oppose the elimination of door-to-door mail delivery by Canada Post

- Door to door mail delivery is a vital public service. It ensures that everyone can get their mail easily.

- It will be a significant obstacle for people with mobility issues; people with disabilities, many seniors and anyone housebound due to temporary illness.

- CMBs are eyesores. They are often targets for vandalism, cause traffic congestion and add to the litter in the streets, lowering the value of nearby homes. No one wants one close to them. But no one wants a long walk for their mail either.

- Eliminating door to door delivery will lead to the loss of 8000 jobs, more if we include those which are part-time - These are ‘good’, unionized jobs that we can’t afford to lose. They pay decently, include important benefits like pensions and offer those doing them protection from arbitrary treatment The part-time are especially desirable for anyone like University and College students, or single parents who can only work part-time,.

- The Government and ‘Think Tank’ talk about declining mail volumes and pension deficits is greatly exaggerated. Canada Post has been profitable for 17 of the past 18 years, contributing over a billion dollars to federal revenues during that time.

- Canada Post should be adding new services, not cutting existing ones – services like postal banking. A postal bank could eliminate the outrageous fees and interest rates tens of thousands of Canadians without bank accounts are charged to cash paychecks. And it could spare the hundreds of thousands Canadians who live in towns with post offices but no private banks the cost of travelling to another town to do basic banking.