Every day, mail carrier Nino Laurello pounds the pavement going door to door in Dollard des Ormeaux.
“I've been basically walking for 24 years and dealing with customers on a personal level,” he said.
But soon, that will change. Starting in spring of 2015, residents of D.D.O., Pointe Claire, Kirkland, Lachine, Pierrefonds-Roxboro, Ile Bizard-Ste. Genevieve, Longueuil, Brossard and St. Lambert will have their mail delivered to community mailboxes.
The move will affect 70,000 addresses. Two-thirds of Canada Post customers already use community mailboxes.
Facing a 50 per cent drop in mail and a potential $1-billion loss of revenue - Canada Post is in cost cutting mode.
The plan to eventually phase out door-to-door delivery was announced in December.
In February, Canada Post announced residents of Repentigny, Rosemere, Lorraine, Bois-des-Filion and Charlemagne would be the first communities in Quebec to lose their door-to-door service.
The crown corporation says rising costs and falling mail volumes are to blame for the change.
In D.D.O., 25 per cent of residents get their mail via the communal mailboxes already.
Mayor Ed Janiszewski says having both services isn't fair and he supports the phase out.
“I said when they first put up the community boxes they should do them everywhere or nowhere at all,” he said.
Canada Post says it's in the process of notifying customers affected by the switchover and didn't want to comment.
Unions say the changes could cost 6,000 to 8.000 jobs. Alain Duguay, spokesman for Canadian Union of Postal Workers says there are other avenues to make the crown corporation profitable.
“It’s not only in Canada we have less mail. But there's lot more parcels. Many countries who adopted the financial services are great and they're still continuing to offer door to door delivery,” he said.
Marie Sorbo still receives her mail at her door. She said she isn’t impressed by Canada Post’s plan to phase out mail.
“It's a service that we pay for. Canadians pay a lot of taxes and if they need to cut down on something, this isn't the thing to cut down on. There are a lot of elderly people, retired people who have trouble getting to the public mail,” she said.
For now, mailman Laurello is focusing on getting his job done, despite the fact it could soon be extinct.
“The morale is not so great because we don't know where we're headed. If there is a future for us,” he said.