When Canada Post stops delivering mail to your home’s front door later this month across Canada, Dan Trudeau hopes you will call him.
Trudeau is the CEO of a new privately owned company called You Have Mail. The Winnipeg-based company is slated to start delivering mail on Oct. 20 from Canada Post’s community mailboxes directly to an individual home or small business.
This is the same day Canada Post will start phasing out its door-to-door delivery to more than 100,000 homes and 10,000 businesses as part of a five-year plan to eliminate home delivery for more than five million Canadians.
For $20 a month, Trudeau’s company will deliver mail from your community mailbox to your home or small business, twice a week, on Mondays and Wednesday. For $30 per month, You Have Mail will make three deliveries per week, on Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Corporations can also sign up with You Have Mail for daily delivery at a cost of $60 per month. If you would like your junk mail filtered, it costs an extra $5 per month.
“We came up with the concept a couple of months ago when people in my circle expressed their concerns about keeping home delivery,” Trudeau said, adding that he’s been inundated with requests.
“We’re getting a lot of calls from seniors who are not capable of going to the community boxes and small businesses and people who want to be the one to make that decision to continue door-to-door service,” Trudeau said.
Trudeau says his business will start home delivery in Winnipeg and expand west to Fort McMurray, Alta., and Calgary in November or December, depending on demand.
But the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) strongly condemns the move to continue door-to-door mail delivery on a privatized basis, saying he’s exploiting Canada Post’s decision.
“The Harper government is trying to kill Canada’s postal service and the vultures are circling,” said Denis Lemelin, National President of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, in a statement.
“Why should Canadians have to pay $20 or $30 or $60 to have their mail delivered to the door? ... Privatization is not the solution. Mail delivery must remain a public service, not a for-profit business.”
Canada Post refused to comment on Trudeau's new door-to-door delivery service.
In August, Canada Post said it would continue home delivery for residents who are physically unable to retrieve mail from community boxes, provided they provide medical information about their physical disability and a doctor’s note.
