Canada Post strike leaves seniors, passport applicants in limbo

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Because the Canada Post strike drags on, susceptible teams, together with seniors, in addition to passport candidates, are bearing the brunt of delayed providers. For seniors like Cecilia Lopes, a retired trainer dwelling in Montreal’s West Island, the strike’s influence is deeply private and financially destabilizing.

“I depend on a pension from Portugal, and so they don’t supply direct deposits to Canadian banks,” Lopes defined. “The cheques should come by mail, and now they’re caught. This threatens my subsistence.” She added that uncashed cheques could finally be returned to their nation of origin, creating bureaucratic nightmares.

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Seniors are amongst those that rely probably the most on conventional mail, counting on Canada Publish not just for pensions but in addition for prescription medicines and invoice funds.

Based on a 2023 Canada Publish survey, Canadians aged 65 and older reveal larger dependence on bodily mail, significantly for such important paperwork as payments, authorities advantages, and private correspondence. This discovering is attributed to decrease charges of digital adoption amongst seniors, together with a desire for tangible communication strategies.

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Moreover, pensions account for 15.1 per cent of family property for seniors, highlighting their significance for monetary safety and underscoring the potential hardship brought on by disruptions to mail supply.

Lopes, who lives alone, expressed concern for others in related conditions, particularly these with out assist techniques. “For some seniors, this can be a catastrophe,” she mentioned.

Lopes’s scenario shouldn’t be distinctive.

Many seniors additionally rely on the mail for personal pension cheques from employer-sponsored plans, unions, or insurance coverage corporations. Though direct deposit has turn out to be extra frequent, not all suppliers supply the choice, leaving mail supply as the one technique for some retirees. And whereas there isn’t a exact determine for what number of seniors rely particularly on mailed pension cheques, Statistics Canada stories that greater than 6.7 million Canadians have been lively members of registered pension plans in 2021.

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The strike can also be having a major influence on these awaiting time delicate paperwork, together with passports. Rishi Balani, who lives in Ottawa and is in Canada on a piece allow, not too long ago handed over her passport to Service Canada for visa stamping. Regardless of paying for expedited service, the passport stays undelivered.

Balani described the emotional toll in an e mail to public providers minister Steven MacKinnon: “We’re being ping-ponged between Canada Publish and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), with no decision. This isn’t about items — that is about our id.”

Though Canada Publish has agreed to proceed delivering home authorities pension cheques, Lopes criticized the shortage of assist for these counting on worldwide funds. “Tens of millions of Canadians have pensions coming from overseas,” she mentioned. “The federal authorities must step in.”

• E mail: shcampbell@postmedia.com

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