Mayor John Tory is optimistic the end of door-to-door mail delivery will go smoothly in Toronto, but one Hamilton councillor is warning Toronto to “be careful of the spin.”

While Toronto will be one of the last cities where Canada Post phases out door-to-door delivery in favour of community mailboxes, the City of Hamilton will be in court next week battling the Crown corporation for more control over where the super mailboxes are located.

“I think there will be challenges here,” Tory said Tuesday when asked about the court fight.

But the mayor said after talking to Canada Post CEO Deepak Chopra, he’s confident changes will come in a “sensible order” in Toronto.

“All I can say is my conversations with the CEO of Canada Post certainly led me to conclude that they are going about this in the downtown area but in Toronto generally with great care,” Tory said.

As for Canada Post taking the City of Hamilton to court, Tory doubted the courts were “really the best place to resolve these kinds of things.”

Hamilton Councillor Terry Whitehead said Canada Post needs to recognize that cities set the standards when it comes to right-of-ways and are “best equipped to understand safety issues, aesthetic issues, location issues within the community that do not create conflict.

“They’re putting the super mailboxes on four-lane arterial roads that are just waiting for an accident to happen,” Whitehead said Tuesday.

Whitehead stressed the fight isn’t over Canada Post’s decision to stop door-to-door mail delivery.

“That’s their decision and we respect that is their decision to make but they need to respect the fact that we’re the closest in regards to the expertise — we have the forestry department, the traffic department,” he said. “So we’re the ones that are in best position to ensure that we can get those super mailboxes in places to meet their needs but done to the highest level of safety with the least amount of conflict.”

Asked if he had any advice for Tory when it comes to this issue, Whitehead replied: “Don’t buy into the spin — it’s a lot of cotton candy but no meat.”

don.peat@sunmedia.ca