Lower North Shore: Waited weeks for mail

Blanc-Sablon’s mayor, Andrew Etheridge, condemned Canada Post’s decision to hand over mail delivery to SkyJet.

Awarding the contract to the company at the beginning of the month, Mr. Etheridge emphasized.

This winter, the mayor of Blanc-Sablon was upset to learn that the airline had stopped helping people with reduced mobility board their flights.

Since Route 138 doesn’t go to his village, only the air route allows his fellow citizens to travel from the lower North Shore to the rest of Quebec.

“If people aren’t strong in their legs, they can’t fly at all,” says Andrew Etheridge.

So he was concerned that an air liaison company, SkyJet, had won a postal delivery contract from Canada Post to serve his village earlier in the month.

A concern confirmed by one of his fellow citizens, Armand Zonkas, was that the post office boxes in Blanc-Sablon were not delivered from August 3 to 14.

Canada Post declined our interview request.

“Unfortunately there have been occasional delays recently due to mechanical problems or staff availability issues,” a TVA spokeswoman wrote in an email to Nouvelles.

“Three flights were conducted on Friday and Saturday August 11 and 12 with the aim of ensuring that all mail collected in the affected communities of the Lower North Shore could be delivered on Monday August 14. […]. The carrier has made the necessary adjustments and now scheduled flights are expected to continue normally,” he added.

Lower North Shore residents have had to be patient for years.

“Usually it’s two weeks, maybe three weeks depending on the weather. But this year, sometimes it’s a month, maybe two months. And it took three to four weeks to send a letter from Chevéry to Blanc-Sablon. It’s terrible,” lamented Andrew Etheridge.

For her part, Manicougan’s federal deputy, Marilane Gill, intervened on several occasions in the file.

“A bond of trust with a state corporation, – is difficult for the population,” she said.

Marilyn Gill has been negotiating with Canada Post for years to find solutions such as shipping by boat or color codes on packages.

“There are many possibilities, we have done it in consultation with the whole MRC Golf-du-Saint-Laurent, but it is a state institution which, in my opinion, is not moving,” she added.