Canada Post is changing the way it delivers mail in Valleycliffe.
Residents’ mailboxes are currently located in a hallway in the Stawamus Mall across from the Westway Village apartments. Canada Post wants to move to delivering mail to a network of about 20 community boxes placed throughout the area, according to Eugene Knapik, a spokesman for the crown corporation.
“We are working with the municipality and our goal is to supply improved mail delivery in the area,” said Knapik. “The current delivery is to an older mail panel that is obsolete and it can’t be repaired, and as a result we have some customers who have to pick up their mail at the Squamish post office, so we need to look for a new solution so that we can provide the quality of delivery we want for all of our customers.”
Canada Post has been moving to community mailboxes in municipalities across the country as part of its 2014 cost savings initiative.
In 2014, Canada Post delivered 1.4 billion fewer pieces of mail than in 2006, according to the corporation.
Delivery for about one million households was changed to community mailboxes or were in the process of being converted in 2015, according to a March 2015 Canada Post report.
Under federal legislation, Canada Post can place mailboxes in any public place, including a public roadway. Canada Post is exempt from municipal bylaws.
The exact locations and the implementation date for the new community boxes are still to be determined, Knapik said.
Mail theft has been an issue with the boxes in their current location, which is in a quiet hallway that is not visible to the average passerby.
Murray Watt had his mail stolen from his box no less than six times. He isn’t optimistic that Canada Post will improve things.
“I doubt it will change much,” he said. “They have been saying they are going to go to community boxes for a while. When I complained last year, they said that was how they would resolve the theft problem – a year later they still haven’t done it. Still no security.”
Valleycliffe resident, former councillor and former Canada Post employee Bryan Raiser likes the community aspect of the current mailboxes.
“I’m a huge proponent of community gathering spaces, and that position has only grown in an age of everyone on their phones. So it is sad when we lose a good one like this,” Raiser said, adding that the theft from the Valleycliffe mailboxes had to be addressed, perhaps with upgrades to the current boxes.
Staff at the District of Squamish proposed the option of creating a centralized mini-park of mailboxes for Valleycliffe residents and giving residents the choice between the park or the network of community boxes, but no site for the park was found.
“We could not find a location that was viable,” said Matt Gunn, a planner with the district.
The community boxes will mean more work for district staff.
“There is going to be vegetation maintenance around the sites, because we don’t want to let them look like a scraggly mess with long grass growing all over,” Gunn said, adding Canada Post will do maintenance if there is a safety issue or people can’t get to their mail, but otherwise Canada Post will not do regular weeding or maintenance. The district would also have to pick up any litter around the boxes.
Purchase and installation of recycling receptacles will cost the district $2,000 per site (for a one-time total of $40,000), and annual recycling and vegetation maintenance will be $18,000, according to district staff projections.
Council is concerned about clean-up costs, Gunn said, so the district will ask Canada Post for funding to provide recycling boxes and for maintenance of the sites.
