Canada Post is closing sorting facilities all across the country in an effort to cut down on costs and moving them to central locations. In Nova Scotia, nine sorting facilities are closing, including Liverpool, and being moved to the main facility in Halifax.
Anick Losier, spokesperson for Canada Post, says customers shouldn't notice much of a difference when the change comes into effect. Mail delivery is still guaranteed as two open business days for local delivery.
The biggest visual change, she says, will be only one mailbox to drop mail into instead of sorting between local and out of town.
The reason for the change, she says, is because of the drop in mail volume. Half of their revenue is generated through letter handling, and the decline last year meant a loss of $327-million for the crown corporation.
"People are just not using Canada Post in the same way," she says.
Most of the change is attributed to the rise of the digital medium.
Over the past six years, mail has dropped by one in five letters, which works out to two million less letters a day countrywide.
Losier says they need to make their operation more efficient, and cut down on costs while minimizing job losses.
Employees that were tasked with sorting mail will be assigned to other parts of the operation, while some will continue to sort ad mail and parcels that come into the local post offices. Any job cuts will come through attrition.
"It means nobody is losing their jobs," says Losier.
The changeover will start in mid February.
Agenda 21 at work. Going back to the old pony express for mail delivery.