Dozens of residents of Sebastopol Street in Montreal’s Pointe-Saint-Charles neighbourhood have spent weeks wondering where their mail is sitting.
They live on one of the oldest streets in the city, which is badly in need of repairs. City crews began construction back in June to replace pipes.
Once that started, Canada Post suspended service on the street, but never delivered the message to residents about the interruption.
"I figured the information needed to be out there, so I took it upon myself," said Mathieu Murphy-Perron, who lives on Sebastopol.
Murphy-Perron wrote a letter and went door-to-door delivering it to neighbours informing them about the disruption, since Canada Post never sent an official notice to residents.
He recently returned from vacation and realized nothing had come through the mail slot while he was away.
"I realized I hadn't gotten any mail so I turned to my partner, Jackie, and said, 'Did we get any mail?' and she says, 'No, we haven't.'"
Canada Post told him when he called them that service stopped weeks earlier and that he could pick up his mail at the post office on Bridge Street, since there is no nearby community mailbox.
"Solutions need to be found other than telling people to walk 25 minutes," said Murphy-Perron. "I'm very concerned for my elderly neighbours, or neighbours with limited mobility."
MAIL SERVICE RESTORED
Canada Post did not plan on resuming delivery until November when construction is expected to wrap up.
But once Murphy-Perron went public with his complaints, the agency reversed its decision and restored service on Wednesday.
"After meeting with the construction site manager, we’ve arranged for safe access to the street for our delivery agent,” said Canada Post spokesperson Valérie Chartrand in an email to CTV News. "If there is a change to delivery services in the area, we will make every effort to notify customers."
Murphy-Perron hopes the kind of miscommunication doesn’t happen again.
"I just want Canada Post and the communities they serve to collaborate better to avoid these kinds of frustrations."
