.jpg)
Residents of Muenster and area will have the opportunity to gather at a meeting to discuss options revolving around its postal service. A social media post and mailout from the Village of Muenster to residents invited them to a meeting on January 21 at 7 pm in the lounge of the Muenster Curling Rink.
At the end of 2024, the current retail postal outlet hosts, Eastside Liquidation, indicated that they would not be renewing their contract with Canada Post. The service could be suspended as early as the end of March.
That led to the search for a new retail operation or organization to undertake the service. As of publication time, no known offers had come forward. That necessitated calling a meeting with a statement, “This is a challenge that can only be tackled as a community!”
The Village of Muenster followed up with a written statement, signed by Mayor Shauna Ilg, responding to questions posed by Discover Humboldt. Foremost, the Village clarified that it is simply facilitating the meeting and is not in a position to assume the retail postal outlet.
“The council would like to start by making it very clear, that just because we have spearheaded a meeting to get the conversation around changes to our postal services rolling, that we ARE NOT obligated to and WILL NOT be taking over the responsibility of finding a home for a new postal outlet. The Village of Muenster is legislated under the Municipalities Act to ensure the provision of municipal services. Canada Post is a federal service and the Village has no authority over them or their employees.”
The statement went on to say that the Village council felt it was important to keep area residents informed about major matters. It stated the agenda of the meeting was to assess the impact of losing the postal service in Muenster and to explore other options. The statement outlined several of those.
“1. Another retail business takes on the responsibility (For a business to be considered, it must be an active business with a solid revenue base with the ability to share staff to cover Canada Post duties to reduce expenses.) The benefits that a Rural Canada Post Office can give to a business is primarily through foot traffic and community service (no cash revenue incentive).
2. Someone takes the initiative and organizes a postal service like that of St. Gregor, where they created a retail space, added the mailboxes and operate with limited resources and a lot of fundraising. This system is working very well there.
3. Community Mailboxes (CMB’s) with alternate post offices for parcel pickup. For example: Mail goes to boxes in town, parcels picked up at the closest post office, Humboldt
4. Amalgamation: All Canada Post boxes, mail, parcels and services would be moved to another Post office.”
In the case of scenario 2, the St. Gregor RPO model, the statement indicated that people with that association would be on hand to provide comments.
The statement reiterated that the Village is acting as facilitators of the meeting for the sole purpose of exchanging information and providing an outlet for discussion. It concluded by reinforcing the Village council’s stance.
“There is no allowance to incorporate the postal service financial statements and payment of Canada post employees within our municipal office financials. Council of the Village of Muenster has no inherent responsibility to host a retail postal outlet in Muenster and Muenster has no authority to impose any levy associated with postal services. We do however, feel that it is our responsibility to educate the public to the best of our abilities so these services simply do not just slip away.”
Several hundred area residents and a couple dozen storefront and homebased businesses, institutions and organizations would be impacted by the loss of postal services in Muenster.