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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Postal depot on Main rejected

Fight vowed to secure exchange of properties

By: Kevin Rollason

Posted: 04/25/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night will stop Canada Post carriers, but building a new letter-carrier depot on Main Street would.

A proposal by the provincial government to give Canada Post the vacant lot at Higgins Avenue and Main Street in return for the lot at Portage Avenue and Broadway, coveted by neighbouring Gordon Bell High School students and local residents for green space for community activities and student athletics, was sent to the dead-letter office by the Crown corporation late Thursday.

Canada Post spokeswoman Kathi Neal said the proposed site was "impractical" for their needs.

"We determined it is not a good fit for Canada Post," Neal said Friday.

"Eighty letter carriers will work out of that depot for the downtown, West End and Polo Park. Higgins and Main is on the extreme border, so it is impractical."

Neal said if the province can deliver another piece of property for Canada Post to consider, they will look at it, but meanwhile the plan is to build the new letter-carrier facility near Gordon Bell this August.

That doesn't sit well with 17-year-old Morgan Hoogstraten, a Grade 12 student at Gordon Bell.

"We're all so into this we'll put up a fight for this full throttle," Hoogstraten said.

"I just think there's more spaces out there. I can't see how they could build there and crush all the dreams of students in this area."

Federal NDP MP Pat Martin, who has supported the push for the green space, said he was taken aback when Canada Post rejected the proposal.

"What a difference a day makes. We were short of celebrating, but we were optimistic we were on track," Martin said.

"If this is a negotiating strategy, it is a pretty cheap stunt. This is for the well-being of the inner-city children. If this was a labour negotiation, it would be unfair bargaining.

"We'll haul them before the court of public opinion."

Peter Bjornson, the province's education minister, said he has sent a letter to the federal minister responsible for Canada Post.

"We're not giving up," Bjornson said.

"We're asking Canada Post to reconsider the offer... we hope they do what's right for the community."

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 25, 2009 A4

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