Noteworthy: Times, they are a changin’ – but I still really like mail

By Bruce Penton on November 20, 2024.

I guess I live a rather dull life, because ‘checking the mail’ has long been one of the highlights of my day.

So when Canada Post goes on strike and I know for certain there will be no mail in my box – no cheques, no bills, no flyers, no fast-food coupons or retail magazines – it’s definitely a downer.

Vacation time would be highlighted by the return home, and the first chance to check the mail after a few days’ absence. If during a lengthy holiday we had someone picking up our mail for us, it would be stacked on the kitchen table upon our return, and for me, it was like Christmas morning to a six-year-old.

But now I worry about the future of Canada Post. I read the other day that 91 per cent of government cheques are deposited directly into recipients’ bank accounts, whereas in the past, Canada Post would hand-deliver millions of monthly cheques – old age, Canada Pension, family allowance, etc., – to Canadians across the country. What is replacing that revenue?

Way back when we would have a bill-paying day, when cheques were written at the kitchen table for the monthly bills. Each would be stuffed into an envelope, along with the invoice, properly affixed by a stamp, and taken to the local post office for mailing. Now, as with probably the vast majority of Canadians, our bills are almost 100 per cent paid electronically. No stamp, no envelope, no worry that it might get lost if we happened to get the postal code wrong.

Being a veteran of the community newspaper business, I sympathize with publishers across the land who depend on Canada Post to deliver their products weekly. But that’s another aspect of today’s business culture going electronic – it’s easier, and less expensive, to read the online version of a newspaper. Just another piece of rope for the Canada Post noose.

Besides losing customers to electronic rivals, Canada Post is in a competitive war with entities like Amazon and FedEx in the courier/parcel delivery business. The Crown corporation is the majority owner of Purolator, which is a Canadian giant in that field.

Not sure how this labour strife will get solved, but with Canada Post revenue basically stagnant (albeit in the $10 billion-per-year range), workers asking for more money, and with a $1-billion debt hanging over the corporation, I fear for its future.

And the thrill of opening the mailbox to find … something, anything … may be gone forever.

â€¢ The ol’ Medicine Hat car dealer, Stan Sauer, knows a good deal when he sees it, and says he couldn’t agree more with the sentiment expressed in this space a couple weeks ago about the terrific care patients receive from the hard-working men and women with Alberta Health Services.

Sauer said he’s had a couple of health scares recently, and says the treatment he received from doctors, nurses and other hospital staff was so great it makes him wonder why the loudest voices we hear about the health-care system are the ones uttering complaints.

Granted, no one is perfect, and mistakes probably occur in the health-care field, but in most cases, the staff are overrun with patient needs and I found out they go above and beyond with their care and expertise. Stan Sauer agrees.

â€¢ Michele Winger passed along a note about an upcoming art display by members of the Strathcona Art Studios.

The artwork display produced by 14 of the talented Strathcona group will open this Friday in the TREX space, the public art gallery at 516 Third Street, with the artists’ reception taking place the same night during Midnight Madness.

The show is called ‘From Life to Paper, Paper to Life II’ and will run until Jan. 25.

â€¢ Short snappers: The former Cheesecake Cafe at the southeast end of Strachan Road will soon be home to a Mr. Mike’s Steakhouse/Casual, according to a sign adorning the building. … Being a Manitoban by birth, which requires lifetime allegiance to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, it’s painful to say that the word ‘dynasty,’ being thrown around the CFL world after the Bombers advanced to the Grey Cup game five consecutive years, is instead ‘die-nasty,’ because for the third year in a row, they died a slow, nasty sporting death in the annual Grey Cup classic. … How low can our Canadian dollar fall against its U.S. counterpart? It dipped below 71 cents Monday before settling just a fraction above at the end of the day. Research shows that in September 2007, it was at par with the U.S. dollar, the first time since the 1970s. But it could be worse. It sank as low as 63 cents in 1998.