OTTAWA, Canada—Canada Post announced Monday it is temporarily suspending its program to switch from door-to-door delivery to centralized community mailboxes, a program opposed by incoming prime minister Justin Trudeau.
Outgoing Prime Minister Stephen Harper had backed the program, which would have saved money in the face of declining deliveries but cut between 6,000 and 8,000 postal jobs.
Postal workers and disabled and elderly customers had opposed the conversion program, begun in 2013 and set to conclude by 2018.
On the campaign trail, Trudeau said he was also opposed to the effort.
“Efforts are now underway to place the comprehensive program on hold in an orderly fashion,” the Crown corporation said in a statement.
It said the roughly 460,000 addresses currently in the 10-month process of converting to a community mailbox would keep their door-to-door service.
But neighborhoods that have already converted to community boxes, including those relying on those boxes starting this month, will continue to do so.
“We will work collaboratively with the government of Canada to determine the best path forward given the ongoing challenges faced by the Canadian postal system,” the statement said.
In launching the program in 2013, Canada Post had said it would run up a debt of nearly Can$1 billion by 2020 if its business model did not change, particularly due to the rising costs of pensions.
It also stressed that the number of letters and packages they delivered had declined significantly over the past decade in the face of email.
Four municipalities, including Montreal, had joined the postal workers’ union in trying to block the community mailbox program in court.
In August, Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre took a jackhammer to a community mailbox base he said had been built without consulting the city.
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