West Island food bank pushing Canada Post to sell vacant building

Micheal Labelle said the WIAF needs Canada Post to sell its vacant building so the food bank can have a new home after a fire wiped out over half of its space. (Kelly Greig/CTV)

The West Island Assistance Fund (WIAF) thought it had found the perfect solution.

After a major fire in 2019 wiped out over half of its space in Roxboro, it’s been looking for a new home for its food bank and to keep with growing demands. When a Canada Post distribution center closed last year on the very same street as the WIAF the head of the charity’s board of directors thought it would be the perfect place to move.

"It's about 8000ft² on the ground floor," Micheal Labelle told CTV. "It's got high ceilings, it's got garage doors and a loading dock. It's a facility that we can move in right away and make use of."

The problem is Canada Post isn’t giving the facility up.

"When properties are no longer required for our operations, we follow a fair and open process to receive fair market value as part of our long-standing mandate to remain financially viable," it told CTV. "As for the property you're inquiring about, it is currently not for sale."

While some Canada Post facilities have been slated for housing, Labelle says this one would be a perfect fit for the WIAF. "We honestly don't know what we're going to do with that solution that doesn't go through," he said.

Now it’s leaving the WIAF in the situation of trying to fill double the amount of Christmas basket requests with less than half the space it used to have.

"We don't have space to store food that we get in so that's always a challenge," said Labelle. It currently has 6,000 West Islanders registered to the food bank. Forty percent of those are children.

"With the Canada Post building we could actually allow people to come indoors and wait to get their food baskets. Right now they'll be waiting outside to register," said Labelle.

A Canada Post distribution center closed last year. (Kelly Greig/CTV)

For volunteers it means trying to stack shelves in tight quarters and unloading delivery trucks box by box.

"The facility at the back is primitive," said Labelle. Essentially, it’s a covered back shed that is exposed to the element including bitter cold and wind. "With a proper loading dock and cart it takes our driver maybe 15 minutes all by himself to load his truck. When it comes here, he's taking about two hours to unload with volunteers."

The lack of space is also preventing the organization from growing to fill current demand and provide additional services like laundry facilities and prepared meals.

"We cannot do it here because we don't have a kitchen," said volunteer coordinator Maroune Thernouch, “we don't just don't have space for that.”

Labelle adds one of the workers also volunteers in a community kitchen and will occasionally bring in prepared food on his own so they can give it to certain families. Labelle points out that in many cases people don’t have the time or resources to cook themselves a healthy meal.

The WIAF will celebrate it’s 60th year in 2027. Labelle says to ensure it has 60 more it needs to have the space. He’s hoping the vacant Canada Post building visible from the charity’s front door is the answer, but adds it can’t keep operating on the limited space it has now.