Canada Post strike hits voting in N.L., P.E.I.

Maria Sarrouh has more on the impact the Canada Post strike is having on the ongoing elections in Atlantic Canada.

Striking Canada Post workers in St. John’s took a brief break from the picket line today to retrieve election ballots at a processing plant, handing them over to city workers this morning, the local union has confirmed.

The mail stoppage is unfolding in the middle of municipal and provincial elections in Newfoundland and Labrador. Last Friday, the City of St. John’s said mail-in ballots might still be in the Canada Post system.

Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) St. John’s local vice-president Arleen Critch said after some discussion, the union reached out to Canada Post about accessing the processing plant.

“CUPW decided that allowing the democratic process to occur and provide the public service to the people of St. John’s was the right thing to do,” Critch wrote in an email to CTV News.

However, the national union says this was a local initiative based on specific circumstances and should not be an expected practice.

On Prince Edward Island, striking workers say the mail will not move until Ottawa does, despite ripple effects on the Island’s Liberal leadership race.

“We have to stand fast,” CUPW Charlottetown president Pearl Gillis-Palmer said. “It’s not just for us. We’re not greedy postal workers. We’re here for the public.”

The stoppage forced a last-minute pivot in the electronic voting process, which started Monday.

Late last week, the party posted to Facebook explaining the strike was affecting how voter information would be distributed. Members need PINs, or personal identification numbers, to make their pick.

The party says a minority, about 15 per cent, did not provide email addresses when they registered. Voter information was scheduled to be mailed to those members. Instead, Intelivote, the company hired to run the process, began calling those members Monday.

“The feedback we’ve been receiving from members is that it’s very easy, very slick,” said Katie Morello, president of the P.E.I. Liberals. “For anyone who does require assistance with voting, we will be opening a hotline.”

Morello adds that an assisted voting room will be set up at the convention on Saturday to help people who are having trouble.

Across the country, employees at Canada Post have walked off the job, pushing back against major reforms proposed by the federal government. Ottawa last week authorized Canada Post to eventually end door-to-door delivery and close rural offices. Instead, four million addresses will be converted to community mailboxes, in an effort to cut costs.

“It’s devastating. It’s going to be a lot of job loss,” said Gillis-Palmer. “Our hearts go out to the seniors and the disabled and the people with young families that can’t get to the roadside mailbox to pick up the mail… There’s all kinds of side effects.”