It’s been six months since we posted about Winnipeg; the last piece about the prairie capital was in high summer when the topic was the city’s lovely Exchange District.
The scene is much different now; -20 C is the norm and the frigid nights come early. There is a strange new addition to the Winnipeg streetscape as well; it is the sight of letter carriers trudging through the snow and ice under the moonlight, attempting to finish extra-long routes that are part of a new experiment called “Modern Post”. Evidently eleven-hour shifts are now the new normal, and in the biting cold and on the icy streets, the extra long walks with satchels full of mail are taking their expected toll as injuries are mounting and the able-bodied workforce shrinks every week. Canada Post is dealing with the issue by flying in management staff from across the country and paying them premiums to deliver the routes that can no longer be staffed by injured workers. Still the experiment goes on; many routes appear to be unstaffed and the mail is piling up in the new “state of the art” sortation facility opened up with great fanfare by the post office last summer, at the cost of $50 million.
Six months on the new plant already has already had its floors dug up to deal with sewer problems and the November snows have caused its roof to leak; rather than stand in puddles staff at the plant have placed mail tubs under the drips and christened the indoor water feature “the Wishing Well”.
The new facility’s remote location and difficulties with harsh seasonal changes contrast with the old main post office. A downtown landmark since the late 1950s, and accessible to both customers and employees by public transit, that building was also connected to the Winnipeg Walkway, a system of underground and skywalk passageways that keeps Winnipeg pedestrians sheltered from the elements during the city’s long and severe winters.