ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Barb Sweet
The Telegram
Canada Post has not given the City of St. John’s a standard that streets need to be at in order for mail to be delivered.
That’s the message Mayor Danny Breen sent to a resident of Riverview Avenue in the Bannerman Park area, close to where William Pryce-Phillips received a letter on the weekend notifying him it was too dangerous for Canada Post to deliver his mail because of conditions for postal workers.
In the email, Breen said he’ll have staff look into concerns about street conditions, since mail delivery has been suspended by Canada Post because of the condition of the road on Riverview Avenue, but Canada Post deals with the issues on an individual basis on the assessment by its staff without letting the city in the loop on what should be done to clear the streets adequately.
Several streets in the city had mail delivery suspended.
Breen told The Telegram Thursday he can see Canada Post’s point of view.
“I can understand why they can’t give us a standard. At the same time, it’s hard for us to say, ‘OK, no mail delivery on this street, we have to clean it up,' but we may not get it to a point that it’s good enough,” the mayor said.
He said Canada Post has to assess each situation, and the specific issues that make one area unsafe may not apply to another, so it’s hard to set a standard.
“It’s an individual type thing. … It’s really up to Canada Post,” Breen said. “We had the same problem last year even though it was a mild winter.”
Like Pryce-Phillips, the Riverview Avenue resident, who didn’t want her name used because of privacy reasons, got a letter stating mail could not be delivered because of concerns for Canada Post staff safety.
She also found it ironic that someone from Canada Post could distribute those notices door to door indicating a safety assessment had found the street too dangerous to receive door-to-door mail delivery.
When she went to the Kenmount Road depot to collect her mail, she said, it included a parcel and a stack of mail six inches high, bound by three elastic bands, a surprising amount given the time frame.
“How long have they really not been delivering our mail?” the woman told The Telegram Thursday.
She noted Riverview Avenue is not a priority street for plowing and hasn’t had much attention since the Jan. 17 blizzard.
Thursday morning, she admitted, the street was like a luge run due to the heavy rainfall Wednesday that froze overnight, but said the walkways were otherwise kept clear other days.
“I get it, it’s a small street,” she said.
The resident also recalls growing up on Southside Road, where there was never a problem with mail delivery because of road conditions.
Canada Post spokeswoman Valérie Chartrand said Thursday St. John's and Mount Pearl have worked hard to improve difficult street conditions following the Jan. 17 storm, and they continue to do so as challenging weather has affected the region every other day.
"Our team leaders and joint health and safety members assess delivery routes whose condition are a concern. In making sure the routes are safe for our employees, members review issues such as traffic volumes, prevailing speeds, street width, safe zones and sidewalks," she said via email.
"We work closely with municipalities to address these issues because the safety of our employees and customers are our top priority."
The Telegram published a story Thursday about Richard Blenkinsopp, who had been waiting on coffee beans that arrived in St. John’s Jan. 27 but had still not been delivered as of Wednesday. During his various calls to Canada Post, it was indicated the delivery date was unknown, and Blenkinsopp grew frustrated.
But while making inquiries with Canada Post’s media relations Wednesday, The Telegram shared Blenkinsopp’s tracking number and he was hand-delivered the beans early Thursday morning.
Breen, like everyone else, is looking forward to the end of winter. He said crews have been working non-stop since Christmas Eve and the city is still working on cleaning up remaining streets that need attention since Snowmageddon. Because of subsequent snowfalls, finding a place to put the snow is tough, which then requires trucking more of it away.
“It’s a challenge, but we are working through it,” Breen said.
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