As of Monday morning, residents of some communities in the West Island, South Shore and Laval are longer receiving home delivery of their mail.

From this day forward, mail for residents in Laval, Pierrefonds, Pointe Claire, Dorval, Kirkland and Dollard des Ormeaux, as well as South Shore municipalities served by the Brossard distribution centre will be deposited into community mail boxes.

Some residents said they didn't feel the change was a big deal.

"Idon't mind it because I'm getting my mail, and that's all I'm interested in," said Pierrefonds resident Guy Thompson.

Others said they have concerns. Jim Henderson said he’s worried about his 82-year-old grandmother, a Pointe-Claire resident.

“She said she's quite annoyed because her box is down the street and she doesn't want to have to go collect it in the ice in the winter time,” he said.

The plan to abolish home delivery was announced in 2013, a plan that angered many including residents, unions and mayors of various cities including Montreal and Westmount.

Last week, Mayor Denis Coderre took a jackhammer to a slab of concrete poured in a Pierrefonds park because he said it was put there without permission. A Dorval man set up a fence and dumped a pile of dirt on his lawn to prevent Canada Post from putting a community mailbox near his property.

Canada Post says that falling volumes of mail makes the transition to community mailboxes necessary in order to protect mail service while reducing the cost of providing it.

Anny Lesage, a spokesperson for the union that represents postal workers, said while jobs are protected because of collective agreement, employees without much seniority may be moved – someone who was working on the West Island find themselves working in the east end or Pointe-aux-Trembles.

“It's 8,000 jobs that are going to be cut at the end. Not now, but with all the cutting they're doing it's 8,000 jobs,” said Lesage.

Canada Post said it has no choice but to cut home delivery.

 
“Well certainly this was not an easy decision in 2013 when we made it, but if you look at the reality that Canada Post faces, volumes of letters are going down,” said Canada Post spokesperson Anick Losier. “People are using Canada Post very differently and we need to change things in order to remain relevant, but also financially sustainable.”

The Crown Corporation has made a profit for 18 out of the past 20 years.