Some cheques haven’t arrived since postal labour dispute, some say

Since the day her child was born, Michelle Christie has always received her Canada Child Tax Benefit cheque on time.
Coupled with her Ontario Works cheque, Christie relies on the government funding to make it day-to day.

Now that the child benefit is a week late and possibly lost somewhere in the mail, Christie said she is in desperate need of that money. After groceries and bills, Christie and her daughter are lucky to have $20 left over without the benefit.

"You can imagine our financial situation," Christie said Wednesday. "I’m just embarrassed and I really feel at a loss that nobody can help to get this rectified."

The cheque was supposed to come on July 20. Christie said she commends local postal workers and MP John Rafferty’s office for the help they’ve tried to give, but still no one can explain to her where the money is.

"Where have the cheques been sitting for the last week and where are they now?" she said. "Nobody is taking accountability as to where this error occurred."

Canadian Union of Postal Workers Local 620 president Wendy Johnston said it has not been business as usual since her members returned to work. There’s been a huge backlog of mail, as far back as June, and there aren’t enough people to get the system back on track. Johnston said Canada Post has the power to fix it but refuses to give letter carriers overtime to deliver mail.

"There’s no way we should be like this," Johnston said. "The mail service is getting worse. People aren’t getting their mail. We see routes not getting delivered in Thunder Bay because they don’t have enough people to deliver the mail."

There are problems all over the country with mail being lost or delivered to the wrong place because of the shortage Johnston said.

"Without the proper staff internal and external the mail just won’t flow anymore. It just won’t flow properly."

Johnston said letter carriers hear from members of the public who are frustrated that they aren’t getting their mail but the carriers can’t deliver mail that isn’t there.

"We only deliver what we have," Johnston said. "It just seems that (Canada Post) creating another crisis."

Both Canada Post and Revenue Canada were contacted, but both parties were unable to provide immediate comment.