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This article was published 10/12/2015 (1749 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — The federal government could launch its planned review of Canada Post mail delivery within weeks, but some Manitoba Liberal MPs already say their constituents are not clamouring for the return of door-to-door delivery.

Two years ago, Canada Post announced it would cut costs by ending all door-to-door delivery for personal mail, and instead install community mailboxes for the remaining five million households still getting that service. Several swaths of Winnipeg were switched to community boxes.

But the Liberals campaigned on a pledge to halt the switchover until a full review of Canada Post’s services could be completed. The Crown corporation stopped installing new community mailboxes less than two weeks after the Liberals won the October election.

Public Services and Procurement Minister Judy Foote said this week she hopes to announce the postal service review shortly, possibly even before Christmas. And she also hopes the review will be completed in six months to a year.

"Mr. Speaker, what we committed to do was do away with the installation of roadside mailboxes, and that happened," Foote said in question period Thursday. "We also committed to a comprehensive review, consulting Canadians from coast to coast to coast, about the future of Canada Post."

More than 20,000 homes in Winnipeg in the neighbourhoods of Garden City, West Kildonan, the Maples, Tyndall Park and St. Vital were among the first 500,000 to be converted from door-to-door service to community mailboxes.

Employment Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk, the Liberal MP for the Kildonan-St. Paul riding in Winnipeg, said since the election, she has spent time most Sundays knocking on doors or making phone calls and doing an informal survey of constituents who now use community mailboxes.

Mihychuk said there are some people who have asked for help applying for special service from Canada Post but for the most part the feedback has been positive.

"Right now 80 per cent of people feel it’s good," Mihychuk said.

Winnipeg North MP Kevin Lamoureux concurred with Mihychuk that many of the people in his riding who lost door-to-door service in the last year are not complaining.

"A good majority of people are somewhat indifferent to it," he said.

Saint Boniface-Saint Vital MP Dan Vandal said he hasn’t done specific canvassing on Canada Post but said it did come up during the election. He said some people thought it was no big deal but those who didn’t like it were vocal in their opposition. And he thinks he heard from more people who were unhappy about it than who were fine with it.

The Free Press did its own informal survey in the Maples this week, talking to residents of about 15 homes chosen at random, and not a single person complained about the community mailbox system.

"Initially, I was opposed to it," said Maples resident Vince Aluotto. "But it’s been fine. We’ve had it for one winter now and there’s been no ice, they keep it clean. Of course, I would prefer it to be right at my door, but we’re close to the mailbox so it’s not bad at all."

Darrell Pomarenski said he likes that he doesn’t need to cancel his mail when he goes out of town and that large parcels are in the mailbox.

"I don’t need to go down to the post office and pick up the package. I don’t have to find the extra time to do that, it’s just right there for me now."

Foote and Mihychuck both said restoring the door-to-door service for those who lost it is possible but not a given.

The NDP is livid at that statement, arguing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a commitment during the campaign to do just that. The NDP have a clip of Trudeau at a press conference in Quebec during the campaign in which he says in French "we commit to restoring home mail delivery."

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair says that quote is clear Trudeau promised not just to review Canada Post service but to restore it.

The Liberal platform, however, specifically promised only a moratorium on more community mailboxes and a review of service.

This issue affects only about one-third of the households in Canada at this point.

More than 10.6 million of the 15.7 private households in Canada already used community mailboxes before this change, either in new developments, apartments and condos or rural communities.

About 500,000 households have been converted since 2014.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca