By Joel van der Veen
June 14, 2010

ELBOW—The Elbow post office may have a new lease on life - if village residents and business owners can devise a plan to rescue it.

Over 125 people attended a public meeting at the Kinsmen Civic Centre on June 7 to discuss the events leading up to the local post office's closure on May 31, the village's response to the situation and what could be done to restore full service to Elbow.

Deputy Mayor Gary Dunn chaired the meeting, with village councillors and Mayor David Cross also present.

After two hours of discussion with the public, council said it will ask Canada Post for time to gather proposals from local business owners wishing to assume the postal duties in Elbow. This would allow the village to recover its previous level of service.

Cross said the council would discuss the situation at its next meeting on June 14.

Dunn presented a timeline of events beginning in early May, when Canada Post informed the village that Kathy Korbo, owner of the Driftwood Studio and Gift Shop and operator of the Elbow postal counter, would not renew her contract with the corporation.

A calculation given by village council estimated the cost of running a postal counter at $25,000 per year, while the contract offered by Canada Post paid only a maximum of $16,000, offering no reimbursement for the space occupied.

The corporation was unsuccessful at finding another business owner to take over the service, and the postal counter closed on May 31, replaced by community mailboxes capable of holding regular mail and small parcels. Elbow residents must now travel 12 kilometres to Loreburn to send parcels and to send and receive larger parcels and registered mail.

"Elbow is not the typical rural community," said Dunn, referring to its growing population. "That didn't seem to impress Canada Post at all."

Dunn said the corporation phoned the town on May 26, saying they had arrived with the new mailboxes and asking where they should be installed.

"My suggestion was they put it on the railway tracks," Dunn said, to laughter and applause.

Instead, the 300-plus mailboxes were placed outside the Civic Centre. Workers were reportedly surprised at the sheer number of boxes, since a typical installation usually consists of around 30.

Canada Post has yet to start permanent staffing procedures to handle the delivery of mail to Elbow. Until that happens, Dunn said, there's room for further discussion.

The latest offer, received from Canada Post on June 4, would permit Elbow to have a non-automated postal outlet, where customers could receive parcels and send registered mail. Outgoing parcels, however, would have to be weighed and paid for in advance by the sender.

Village businessman Tom Wilson read from the press releases he had issued as the situation progressed. Wilson's partner, June Evans, had gathered more than 300 signatures on a list of concerned citizens.

"We've learned a lot about Canada Post this month," Wilson told the crowd. "We've got a pretty good idea of what's happening to small centres across Canada."

Wilson was especially critical of Canada Post CEO Moya Greene, whom he accused of privatizing postal services and marginalizing rural residents. Greene, who became CEO in 2005, will leave to become CEO of the UK's Royal Mail in July.

"This is part of a national agenda for getting rid of little postal outlets," he said. "Canada Post is a very arrogant operation."

Meanwhile, Wilson and others applauded Liberal senator and Saskatchewan native Bob Peterson for his efforts at protecting rural mail delivery.

On June 1, Peterson introduced Bill S-219 in Senate. The bill, if successful, would re-establish roadside mail delivery service, create an ombudsman for Canada Post, and force the corporation to hold more thorough consultations when making changes to rural service.

The meeting continued with a question-and-answer session and a general discussion, where many voices were heard and many options were discussed.

Some residents supported staging a protest at the Moose Jaw post office, while others suggested opening a co-operative postal service, using empty space inside the village fire hall.

Korbo, who ran the counter since 1995 and has cited rising costs and inconvenience as the reasons behind her decision, said she'd happily return to running the postal counter if she could get a fair deal for her efforts.

"I love serving you guys," she told the crowd. The former postal boxes still remain, unused, on Korbo's property.

While some suggested the village request a full-service post office, along the lines of that in Loreburn, Dunn said Canada Post representatives had insisted no

new post offices would be built and had refused to discuss it further.

Canada Post spokesperson Teresa Williams said she admired the community's determination to maintain postal services.

She said there is still time for the community to retain a postal outlet while the delivery route to Elbow is still considered temporary.

"Once we start staffing procedures we will not be able to change the current delivery method," Williams said.

Those permanent staffing procedures will start June 21.

Anyone interested in operating a postal outlet in Elbow has until then to submit a proposal, Williams said, adding that Canada Post is willing to discuss different delivery options for the community.

"We have a number of different models and if there is someone who is interested, by all means, do come forward and we would be willing to discuss.”

No representatives from the corporation attended the meeting.

The leaderonline is a division of The Davidson Leader, Davidson, Saskatchewan, Canada.