MP angered by Canada Post ‘move’

BY MARC LALONDE

marc.lalonde@transcontinental.ca

Moving Pierrefonds’ last stand-alone post office is a slap in the face for local residents, Pierrefonds-Dollard MP Bernard Patry said last week, but Canada Post says moving the post office about six kilometres further southwest to Kirkland in coming months just makes sense for the Crown corporation.

“This is wrong,” Patry said of the closure of the post office on Pierrefonds Boulevard near the corner of Jacques Bizard Boulevard. “The people of this riding are paying taxes after taxes after taxes to the federal government and they’re supposed to get some services for that, and in this case, Canada Post will no longer be offering the service to these people.”

Patry was especially steamed about the closure, which is coming on the heels of last summer’s closure of a Canada Post outlet in Roxboro.

A Canada Post spokesman said the Pierrefonds postal outlet will not be closed, but rather, moved to a new location in an office building at the corner of Highway 40 and St. Charles Boulevard.

“We’re not taking municipal boundaries into account. We’re addressing traffic patterns. The current facility is too small. We have 105 employees in the rear section to support 76 mail routes, and we don’t have enough room,” said Catherine Lortie.

Ironically, it’s Pierrefonds’ dramatic population boom in its western section that’s prompting the move.

“We have to add new routes to the existing ones and we couldn’t have done it at the current building,” Lortie said.

The 255 post-office box holders at its current Pierrefonds outlet will be given the option of moving their boxes to the new centre or to one of the five Canada Post counters located in retail store in Pierrefonds and Roxboro. Finding one shouldn’t be a problem, either.

“We have one outlet in a retail store every 3.3 kilometres in the borough,” Lortie added.

That’s small solace for Pierrefonds/Roxboro residents who used the post office on a regular basis, borough mayor Monique Worth said.

“I’m not pleased at all. We pay federal taxes every day and they want us to go to Jean Coutu. It’s not right. The fact that another community institution is leaving troubles some of our residents.”ꆱ