Canada Post moves one step closer to cancelling home mail delivery
The new system could see bulk mailboxes spring up across the city
Canada Post is pushing ahead with a plan that would replace home mail delivery with thousands of bulk mailboxes scattered throughout Toronto.
Yesterday, the Crown corporation announced that it’s going ahead with a restructuring plan announced last year, reports CTV. The plan has not been released publicly, so details are scant, but it’s known that Canada Post would stop delivering mail to homes directly. Instead, each address would have a slot in a community mailbox on a nearby curbside.
Related: Canada Post may soon stop delivering to your door
Some 75 per cent of Canadians already get their mail this way, so it isn’t an untested idea. However, most live in places far less densely populated than downtown Toronto, and there are concerns about how many boxes we’d need and where we’d put them: it’s estimated that the city could need anywhere from 2,500 to 11,000 of the hulking things.
Some are now fearing a blight of boxes. Last year, Councillor Josh Matlow—a known opponent of ugly, boring street furniture—led city council to call on the federal government to consider the “aesthetic impacts” of the proposed mailboxes on Toronto’s neighbourhoods.
Related: Feud Watch—Josh Matlow versus community mailboxes
Matlow also noted that each box would have to sit on a big concrete slab and be placed at least nine metres from any intersection—tough requirements in a city already full of stuff. Then there’s the matter of homes: if each unit in every high-rise needs a new mail slot, that’s going to mean many, many boxes.
All of which is to say, it may be a while yet before the switch actually happens here. Canada Post will first have to finish its restructuring plan, figure out how to make it work in Toronto and implement whatever they land on. The new boxes may be coming—but they’re moving at the pace of snail mail.
Anthony Milton is a freelance journalist based in Toronto specializing in long-form magazine writing. He previously worked as an assistant editor at Toronto Life, where he launched the Front Row newsletter. He regularly contributes all sorts of stories to the magazine, including deep dives on sports, business and housing as well as short-form commentary on our ever-changing city, from its obsession with cherry blossoms to its maddening NIMBYism. His work has also appeared in Maclean’s, Ricochet, TVO, the Trillium and more.
