There is another ridiculous twist in the continuing saga of Canada Post’s plan to cut home mail delivery, close post offices and attack its workforce. The roller coaster ride this Crown corporation has taken us on has had some bizarre turns since last December when they announced their five-point plan. From rows of mailboxes being installed in Fort McMurray and pulled out when pictures turn up online, to the CEO’s comments about seniors appreciating the exercise of having to walk to their mailbox, Canada Post management is demonstrating not only that this is a terrible plan, but it is a plan that is being implemented by terribly incompetent people.
It is bad enough that they are ramming this plan through in the face of massive opposition from the general public, but now they believe they have the right to demand medical information from citizens. Canada Post has admitted they will require a doctor’s note in order to continue home mail delivery. Medical conditions of Canadian citizens are none of Canada Post’s business!
The news is being roundly condemned by doctors and patients alike. A press release from the Council of Canadians with Disabilities explained, “Getting a letter from a doctor to qualify for a service means a person with a disability must expend time, energy and money.”
Canadian Medical Association President Dr. Louis Hugo Francescutti complained, “This demonstrates a complete lack of awareness of the challenges facing health-care professionals and patients seeking access to care.”
It is as if one hare-brained scheme after another is being tossed out, without second thought. Has anyone considered the massive burden it will place on our health-care system to have hundreds of thousands of people visiting doctors asking for notes so they can keep their mail service? Has the brain-trust at Canada Post headquarters considered the bureaucracy they will have to create just to manage a nation-wide list of everyone with a medical issue which might prevent them from picking up their mail? Are they going to be continually restructuring routes as people get sick? How could such a ridiculous idea even make it past the first brainstorming session, let alone into an actual plan?
As a letter carrier myself, who has become a PPD employee (permanent partial disability) I can personally attest to the harassment sick and injured workers receive from this corporation. One can only wonder if they will take the same approach to managing citizens with disabilities. Will they hire a company to phone citizens and ask them if they are ready to pick their mail up yet? How about three days a week? Can your doctor prescribe a course of treatment that would allow for a gradual return to picking up your mail? As ludicrous as it sounds, there is no longer any level of idiocy that would surprise me from Chopra and his 22 Vice Presidents.
At what point will the Prime Minister realize that these clowns are not fit to run this Crown corporation?
Mike Palecek is a National Union Representative with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.
Photo: flickr/Peter Broster
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