More than 12,000 homes in Abbotsford’s urban core will stop receiving door-to-door mail delivery next fall, Canada Post announced this week.
The postal carrier will be delivering a mail-in survey in early January to solicit public feedback for the change, which will see single-family homes in the V2T and V2S postal code areas receiving mail through community mailboxes.
Other single-family homes in outlying areas in Abbotsford already receive mail through the community mailboxes. The move won’t affect apartment residents nor 3,577 other addresses who already receive mail through group or rural mailboxes, or at the post office. Residents of single-family homes in the rest of Abbotsford already use community mailboxes.
Most businesses that currently receive door-to-door delivery won’t see any change: of 1,557 such businesses, only 108 will be converted to community mailboxes.
Canada Post said the move to community mailboxes is needed to secure the Crown corporation’s future as less mail is sent. No employees will be laid off, according to the company, with staff reductions occurring through attrition as workers voluntarily leave or retire from the company.
The survey will ask residents whether they would prefer to see community mailboxes located closer to their homes in smaller clusters of 30 to 40 boxes, or in larger more centralized clusters. Generally, the vast majority of people favour localized community mailboxes within walking distance, said Canada Post’s Jon Hamilton.
The final locations of the mailboxes is something that will be decided after the public surveys are collected and analyzed. Hamilton said Canada Post will also consult with those who would be living adjacent to the community mailboxes.
Surveys will be delivered the week of Jan. 5, with residents given four weeks to complete it. They can be returned by mail or, in a sign of the changing times, online.