Last month, a disruption in the Canada Post service, had left the Southside residents without mail for several days. The disruption led the residents to come together to organize a townhall, and invited NDP MP of Skeena-Bulkley Valley, Taylor Bachrach to it.
“The townhall went really well. I was impressed by how many people came out and we had a good conversation about next steps and what’s required to get mail delivery on the Southside back to normal,” said Bachrach, adding that a lot of this was up to Canada Post.
The issue of service disruption had come to light after residents on the Southside started reaching out to Lakes District News, to inform that they weren’t receiving their newspapers, or any other mail. The townhall discussed this mail disruption, but also discussed several other issues, such as compensation for the postmaster and adjustment of compensation for carriers, based on increased costs of living.
“We need to ensure that rural post masters are properly compensated, and that the rural mail carriers are provided with adequate compensation for increasing transportation costs. Those are the two big issues that came out of this,” said Bachrach. “I think it is challenging for Canada Post to find people to take on these roles, because costs have gone up and salaries and compensation for expenses need to keep pace.”
For next steps, Bachrach said that he was committed to keeping the community in the loop as to the progress on the issue and making sure that they are aware of what exactly is being done to resolve the issue.
“My role is to advocate for the community and ensure that people have accurate information. In terms of the post office in Southbank, there are two main challenges – first, to find a new postmaster and second is to find a building to house the post office. On both those fronts, progress is being made. There has been really strong leadership from Clint Lambert, the Regional District of Bulkley Nechako director, and everyone is pulling together and doing everything they can to fix the situation,” Bachrach added.
Bachrach however maintained that a lot of this was now in Canada Post’s hands and that the community was going to be counting on them to resolve these issues in a timely way.
Currently, a potential space has been identified to house the Canada Post’s southside office, and it will now be up to Canada Post to conduct inspections and make sure the building meets their criteria. At the same time, Canada Post is also looking for a new postmaster and interviewing candidates for the position.
“Throughout the townhall, we talked about the post office, and we also talked about the broader challenges facing rural communities. I think all across Canada, rural communities have a pretty tough go of it and what we have seen over time is we have seen many services centralized in larger communities and that has made it more challenging for rural people,” said Bachrach, “Northwest BC is mostly a rural and remote region and so, helping people in Ottawa understand the realities that people face is a big part of my job.”