Tecumseh's mayor accepts a judge's decision siding with Canada Post over where community mailboxes should go, but he doesn't like it.
The City of Hamilton took the Crown Corporation to court arguing it needed local approval to install mailboxes. After the mailboxes had been installed, residents complained about the location so; the city enacted a bylaw.
Canada Post ignored it.
It argued as a federal entity; it had the final say not the City of Hamilton. It ended up in court where a lower court sided with Canada Post. Hamilton appealed and finally, an Ontario Appeals Court judge validated the lower court ruling.
Gary McNamara gives Hamilton kudos for taking up the fight and wishes the court battle had gone differently.
"It doesn't help my community," he says. "I've got many of these boxes, seniors and the disabled can't get at them. They can't even get to the boxes. They're in areas that are extremely dangerous on corners of intersections."
McNamara says he's spoken to Canada Post about his concerns and was told some of the boxes might move. Maybe.
"If they're here to stay, they've got to make them safe," says McNamara. "[They've] got to make sure our disabled and our seniors are taken care of. There's a lot of work to be done."
If the boxes move, he wonders who will pay to restore those spaces, the town or Canada Post.
McNamara acknowledges it will take a time to sort out the dispute. He harkens back to an earlier fight the town had with CP Rail over train whistles.
"It took us 15 years, 15 years to get the railroad, through multiple governments, to get them to stop blowing whistles on the CP line on Lesperance Rd.," he says. "15 years!"
Canada Post installed community mailboxes after announcing it was cutting door-to-door delivery in a bid to save money. The federal Liberal government has said it will restore door-to-door, and McNamara says the door is open to delivery every other day or three days a week.
"If we look fiscally at what Canada Post made last year, they're in the black. They're not in the red," he says.
- With files from Ricardo Veneza.