THE WAY I SEE IT -- Why not think of a rural post office as the communications hub it was originally intended to be, asks Feldsted?

Bank's withdrawal upsets Tamworth residents

Raechel Huizinga ~~ Kingston Whig Standard ~~ July 2, 2019

...  Canada’s rural communities have been losing local banks by the hundreds. Tamworth, a small community half an hour north of Napanee, with a population of approximately 1,700, is no exception ... the (Ontario) hamlet’s CIBC bank branch — which is also the only banking location in Stone Mills Township (pop. 7,700) — closed, taking its single ATM with it and forcing customers to travel to Napanee for services such as cash withdrawals and deposits.

“It’s a hardship for all of these small communities, which are already under pressure and often in states of decline,” Tamworth resident Mark Oliver said. “It’s a very slippery slope before there’s not much left.”

A task force travelled across Canada to gather information and hear from different organizations and stakeholders, but Bossio said he was told postal banking would be too difficult to accomplish.

“At the end they came back and said ... “we’re sorry, but there’s just not a viable plan to move in that direction,’” he said, adding he “wished there was a future for postal banking ... “

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This is a problem that only a monolithic government agency can be unwilling to solve.

The cost, infrastructure and security problems are excuses, not reasons. If Canada Post was to offer the banks the opportunity to bid on providing the software system and information on how to set up ATMs, more than one would step up to the challenge.

Banks don’t like the bad publicity they get when they close local branches, which is why providing alternative banking for rural areas is a no-brainer -- as is providing a new revenue stream for Canada Post.

The real question is: “Why stop at banking?”

Why not provide other needed services such as sending and receiving e-mails, greeting cards, faxes, making document copies, sending and receiving electronic cash transfers? Add a couple of booths with computers and internet access for customers?

Why not think of a rural post office as the communications hub it was originally intended to be?

Canada Post is an organization that has become so sophisticated it has forgotten the reason why it exists. Let’s get back to the Royal Mail where the priority was service, not filling your post box with flyers and junk mail.

We have the technology, but lack common sense and the will, to serve people with what they need. We once were able to take an order form torn from a mail order catalogue to the post office, buy a postal money order to cover costs, add postage to our envelope and sent it off.

That is the sort of service we need to reinstate. AND, the federal government has somewhere over $40 billion in non-allocated infrastructure funds set aside, so funding the upgrades should not be a problem.

We need grownups in Ottawa to replace the current crop of climate change freaks, and social engineers, running our country into the ground.

Government do not ‘know better’ what our needs are, and until they resume communicating with the people they serve will continue to blunder their way from one disaster to the next.   

John Feldsted

Political Consultant & Strategist

Winnipeg, Manitoba

John Feldsted ... grew up in a conservative family with a deep interest in arts, history, law, and where reading was a requisite to education. 

He is steadfastly conservative John strongly believes that the best defense for democracy is an informed electorate.