Regular mail versus electronic submission for account setup | General financial discussion | Discussion forum

Your experience with Canada Post is interesting to me, voodoo. An elderly relative who lives in a small town here has been complaining that their mail is not delivered daily as expected. There have been numerous complaints over recent years from various people in the area about mail never arriving. So, perhaps similar to where you are. I didn't know this was so widespread. We thought it was local incompetence, especially as someone was fired a few years back.
We get reliable daily mail here in the big city, but packages are known to disappear.

I actually prefer a mail-in application, because it's easier for me to keep a copy of it, but I expect you're right about the future.

The parcel division of Canada Post is, as I understand it, very profitable, and increasingly so. No need for an extra tax for it.
Getting rid of home delivery is disastrous for many. Think about the elderly and disabled, for instance... My elderly relative, cited above, would have to cross a busy intersection to get to the mailbox. This person has diminished vision and arthritis and relies on the good will of neighbours to collect the mail. No internet access in this home.

Loonie said
Your experience with Canada Post is interesting to me, voodoo. …. There have been numerous complaints over recent years from various people in the area about mail never arriving. So, perhaps similar to where you are. I didn't know this was so widespread. We thought it was local incompetence, especially as someone was fired a few years back.

I've seen incompetence with Canada Post occasionally.

Parents mentioned that they receive mail addressed to a house two streets over with the same house number! That house probably gets some of my parents' mail too. Guess the delivery person gets confused and forgets what street he or she is on!

It could be the mail does arrive, but not where it is addressed to!

Loonie said
The parcel division of Canada Post is, as I understand it, very profitable, and increasingly so. No need for an extra tax for it.
Getting rid of home delivery is disastrous for many. Think about the elderly and disabled, for instance... My elderly relative, cited above, would have to cross a busy intersection to get to the mailbox. This person has diminished vision and arthritis and relies on the good will of neighbours to collect the mail. No internet access in this home.  

Other family members can assist, a POA can have mail forwarded directly to them, etc. The problem is, parcel revenues alone cannot pay for the costs to hand deliver daily mail. We could move to 3-4 day a week delivery or (re-)introduce postal banking (which I'd generally support but that would also accelerate bank and even credit union branch closures as the banks close more rural and suburban branches and outsource their day-to-day transactions to the postal bank, as we've seen in the UK). Postal banking also would simply create a revenue stream to subsidize, effectively, Canada Post's high labour and employee entitlement costs, which the unions would love.

Maybe we add more suburban community mailboxes and relocate them, I'm not sure what the solution is but I also wonder why older people actually need daily mail delivery? We could be adding public Internet terminals in libraries, which are often conveniently located to bus stops requiring no traversing across busy highways where they could check their ePost mailbox and pay bills, for instance, if they didn't want to set up pre-authorized debit. 🙁

Sadly, technology is changing us, often for the worse in terms of labour productivity and the "wage gap" (as illustrated in today's BoC MPR and statement) but telling Canada Post they can't adapt is wrong and creates an unfair urban subsidy of rural Canada.

I'd rather see our tax dollars used to improve people connectivity with a nationalized, point-to-point inter-city bus service like the Saskatchewan Transportation Company that F*ckin' Brad Wall (a nickname I came up with like "Stompin' Tom ") unfairly, surprisingly and swiftly eliminated. 🙁

Cheers,
Doug

Not all elderly people have convenient relatives who are willing to check their mailboxes, nor do they wish to be unnecessarily dependent on them. Maintaining as much independence as possible contributes to their health and well-being.
POA, similarly, may not be convenient. When grandma receives photos of the grandchildren by Canada Post, she ought to be able to see them without waiting for POA to show up on next visit.
Canada Post is quite profitable , at $55million in 2016. Their mandate is to deliver the mail, and they can afford to do so.https://www.canadapost.ca/web/en/pages/aboutus/details.page?article=annual_report
If they weren't making ends meet, we might talk about reducing the number of days per week, but there is no need for that. Perhaps, though, it is already happening informally. It often takes an extra week for this person to receive mail, compared to what it would take for me to receive it. They are already getting reduced service compared to the rest of us.
Post Office banking would be a good idea. Very popular in Britain.
Internet access at libraries is good but will not meet the needs of many seniors. Many many areas have no bus service whatsoever, never mind door to door to the library and back (return trips usually stop on opposite sides of the road). And you shouldn't have to go on a bus ride and pay fares in order to get your mail.
It's unreasonable to complain that urban dwellers are subsidizing rural areas when urban areas (such as mine) are still getting daily home delivery and rural areas are getting occasional delivery to boxes they have trouble accessing. (Among other issues, the bank of boxes near my relative's home is almost unnavigable in winter, flanked by skids of ice. Only the hardy with good vision dare traverse the area. It's unsafe for me personally most of the winter. Complaints do not yield lasting results.) All Canadians are entitled to equal treatment in basic services such as this, education, health care, etc.
Seniors can already pay their bills from home by telephone banking.

Bill said
If you skim the annual reports at Loonie's link you'll notice that Canada Post is all about parcels. Mail (letter) delivery is a diminishing dead-end, it's CP's switch to being a parcel delivery company that has accomplished its successful (so far) transition to the new reality.  

It appears to be a viable business model for Canada Post as a public service. They've found a way to make it work (with the exception of the areas where service is not up to snuff, where they should be spending some of that 55 million/yr). The addition of Post Office banking might make it even better.

I don't think there's any point in arguing about it any more, but you may feel differently when you are actually old, Doug.

Loonie said
Not all elderly people have convenient relatives who are willing to check their mailboxes, nor do they wish to be unnecessarily dependent on them. Maintaining as much independence as possible contributes to their health and well-being.
POA, similarly, may not be convenient. When grandma receives photos of the grandchildren by Canada Post, she ought to be able to see them without waiting for POA to show up on next visit.
…

I don't think door-to-door mail delivery is the way to deal with such situations.

Elderly people who are no longer able to walk a block to their community mailbox are also likely to have difficulties mowing their lawn and plowing the snow from their own driveways. If they decide to still live in low-density housing, we don't subsidize what they need to pay for their lawn mowing or their snowplowing. I'm sure they can also pay someone to pick up their mail for them.

An alternative is to move to higher density housing. As far as I know, Canada Post has no plans to stop delivering mail to those banks of mailboxes in the lobby of apartment buildings. Those lobby mailboxes could even be cheaper for Canada Post to service than community mailboxes.

Odds are that will be what I'll end up having to do should I no longer be able to pick up my own mail. Odds are good as only 1/3 of addresses have door-to-door delivery.

The tendency to say that more and more things ought to be paid for by "government" (i.e. my friends and neighbours - someone, anyone but myself ) is insidious and I find it quite disturbing. It's a slippery slope.

Your view of who is responsible for your own welfare will predetermine your stand on many things.