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Does election of Canada’s new PM end cluster-box conversion there?

Does the election of Canada’s new prime minister mean the end of cluster-box conversion there?

The “Save the Post Office” blog analyzes what Monday’s election outcome in Canada might mean for the future of Canada Post’s plans to end door-delivery of mail there.

Part of the platform of incoming Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the leader of Canada’s Liberal Party, specifically addressed the conversion plans:

“We will stop the [outgoing Prime Minister Stephen] Harper Conservatives’ plan to end door-to-door mail delivery in Canada. We will begin a new review of Canada Post to ensure that the Crown Corporation is fulfilling its public mandate to provide high-quality service at a reasonable cost to Canadians — urban, suburban, and rural. We disagree strongly with the Conservative decision to ask Canadians to pay more for a reduced quality of service.”

“Canadians have not been happy about the conversions,” Save the Post Office notes, “and the issue probably played a role in the election.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Tom Carper’s (D-DE) iPost bill, S. 2051, includes language encouraging the conversion of door delivery access points to cluster or curbside delivery points for residential and business customers, on a voluntary basis requiring customer consent. NALC has adamantly opposed inclusion of this language and will fight for its removal; however, we are pleased that the mandatory conversion of all business door delivery to curb or cluster box delivery that was included in Carper’s last postal bill was dropped from this one. (Read more about iPost here.)

Click here to read a statement by Canadian Union of Postal Workers President Mike Palecek.

Click here to read more at Save the Post Office.