Canada Post has put its stamp on changes to Prince Edward Island’s mail system.
Beginning April 15, people in Charlottetown and points east will drop letters into one central Canada Post red box instead of having to deal with the old dual system — one for P.E.I. mail and one for the mail destined for the rest of Canada.
That same change comes for Summerside and western P.E.I. on May 13.
Also, Canada Post is shutting down local mail sorting on P.E.I., meaning all mail will now go to Halifax for sorting and it will be done by a machine instead of by human hands.
For example, if someone mails a letter in Charlottetown that’s destined for Montague, that letter has to go to Halifax first. That machine can sort 25,000 to 35,000 letters per hour.
Employees were notified of the change two weeks ago.
“We’re trying to find ways to create efficiencies within our network while respecting and maintaining our service so we are going to move local-to-local sortation,’’ said Anick Losier, media relations for Canada Post.
Losier said the current standard for delivering local mail — two days — will not change.
And, no one will lose their job.
“People who work for Canada Post that may be affected by these changes have job security so they’ll just be reassigned somewhere else,’’ she said, adding that the jobs will not be refilled when those people leave or retire.
The changes are part of the Crown corporation’s efforts to address financial losses.
“We had our first financial loss last year, about $327 million. Things are not better. The trends are not reversing, unfortunately. Parcel business has not picked up as quickly to compensate for losses in our letter business so times are tough.’’
Letter mailing has dropped 25 per cent in the past five years. In pure number, Canadians are mailing two million fewer letters today than they were a year ago.
“We’ve seen a dramatic decrease in the volume of mail. People are becoming more accustomed to digital delivery of their bills.’’
It’s no secret that people are communicating largely by technological means, by things like email and Facetime. And more and more companies are turning to online banking.
“It means people are not coming into the post office to buy stamps.’’
Getting a letter or a card in the mail has almost become a novelty now. As of now, only 20 per cent of the mail sent on P.E.I. is destined for another P.E.I. destination.
Losier does acknowledge the challenges of getting mail back to P.E.I. during bad weather, such as when the Confederation Bridge closes to high-sided vehicles when the wind comes up.
“We have contingency plans,’’ she said.
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