Changing ponies on the pony express?

There may soon be a solution to the recent reduction of postal options for Queen Charlotte Island residents.

Subscribing we suspect to the theory that one person's pain, could be another's gain. Pacific Coastal Airlines has been sending feelers out to Canada Post to take over the contract for next day mail delivery on the Queen Charlottes, a service that was discontinued when Air Canada decided to end their end of the partnership with Canada Post.

As with any sensible idea, this one it seems is lost in some kind of bureaucratic no man's land, with Pacific Coastal cooling their engines while Canada Post bounces the idea up the bureaucracy chain.

In order to try and gain some movement on the idea, Skeena Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen is seeking a meeting with Canada Post officials in order to try and bring resolution to the problem and return the Charlottes to confederation as a full member, one which receives postal service on a reliable schedule.

The Daily News featured the latest development on the issue with a front page story in Wednesday's paper.

AIRLINE, MP JOIN POSTAL SERVICE DEBATE

Pacific Coastal Airlines offers to pick up next day delivery where Air Canada left off
By George T. Baker
The Daily News
Thursday, October 30, 2008

Pages one and five

Pacific Coastal Airlines has flown into the fray between the Queen Charlotte Islands and Canada Post.

Pacific Coastal CEO Darryl Smith said his airline has been in contact with Canada Post's British Columbia regional representatives and is hoping to, in the near future, get in touch with the mail service's Ottawa reps.

"Our cargo guys have been talking to Canada Post (regional representatives), who have been told they need to get clearance from Ottawa before they can do anything," said Smith.

Canada Post was notified that Air Canada wanted to bail on its $35-million contract to carry next-day mail to the Islands and Canada Post was given 120 days to find another solution.

Millions have been spent on buying DC-10 airplanes to fly in between major centres but Canada Post has spent no new money on keeping up the priority service for Islanders. Canada Post has said that the situation on the Charlottes is no different to that in many rural regions of the country.

Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen said he would be talking to Ottawa-based Canada Post representatives this week.

"That decision was apparently originated in Ottawa - it wasn't even done at the regional or sub-regional level," said Cullen. "People should keep in mind as a Crown corporation, Canada Post makes an extraordinary profit. It was never designed to make this much profit that then gets rolled into general revenues. Because of that, you see decisions like this where they just simply cut off service from people who deserve it and we are going to have to reverse this decision."

According to Canada Post's annual report for 2007, the Crown corporation has increased revenues each year since 2005, generating $7.5 billion in 2007, which is up from $6.9 billion in 2005.

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However, the corporation has been steadily losing its profit share in the same timeframe.

In 2007, Canada Post generated $160 million in profits, which is markedly down from $282 million it generated in 2005.

It expects a lower return for 2008.

Queen Charlotte City Mayor Carol Kulesha doesn't care how much profit Canada Post is making, She just wants next-day service returned to the QCI soon, and hopefully before Christmas.
Kulehsa has been leading a petition to get XpressPost service back to the QCI but has not been able to convince the corporation that Islanders deserve to have the service returned.