While Canada Post and its unionized employees continue to try to hammer out a new contract agreement at the bargaining table, the ripple effects of the work stoppage are being more and more felt across the country.
One of the groups especially hard hit is Canadian seniors.
“Many people don’t realize that seniors still get a lot of mail. It’s going to affect them most of all,” says Laura Tablyn Watts, CEO of CANAGE, the Canadian national seniors advocacy organization.
“The good news is that the union and Canada Post have negotiated that pension checks, things like CPP and OAS, will still come,” says Tablyn Watts. “But that doesn’t mean that the rest of the bills will flow.”
“More than a million Canadians, most of them more than 80 years old, don’t have access to the internet,” adds Tablyn Watts, “so they really rely on Canada Post – and many seniors don’t have someone they trust to provide them their personal financial or health information.”
Merrill Coombs, President of the Bowness Seniors Association, says many seniors still use traditional mail methods to stay in touch with family and friends and the longer the postal strike drags on, the more isolated some seniors will become.
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Those comments are echoed by Merrill Coombs, President of the Bowness Seniors Association who says “many seniors aren’t very efficient online. They still like to receive a statement, so they have a record so they can compare this month’s to last months or last year.”
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Coombs says the centre also sends out newsletters to help seniors keep in touch with their community, and many of them “still love to send cards to each other.”
“Many come from somewhere else and have family in Saskatchewan or England somewhere else,” says Coombs. “For many seniors, we are their family.”
“I know one lady, says Coombs, “she’s written all of her Christmas cards to her family and they may not go anywhere.”
The CEO of CANAGE, Laura Tablyn Watts, says now is a good time for Canadians to check on their senior family members or friends to find out if they need help with things like banking or picking up prescriptions and to help prevent them from feeling isolated during the postal strike.
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Tablyn Watts says many postal workers also “often do check ins on vulnerable older adults or folks that don’t have people coming by on a regular basis.”
For many seniors, she adds, “talking to the mail carrier may be the only check in they get.”
Tablyn Watts says for Canadians who have seniors they’re close to, “its a great time to check in and see how they’re doing, to make sure that they have the things that they need, ensure they can get to the bank to pay their bills or get to the pharmacy to pick up those prescriptions.”
The longer the strike drags on, she says, the more seniors could face health and financial implications and the more isolated some seniors will become.
That, she says, “means that Santa may not be coming for many seniors.”