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Postal service switching to street addresses

Canada Post is switching all the roughly 1,650 households on the two rural routes in Clearwater from mailbox numbers to civic addresses

Goodbye numbered mailboxes. Hello street addresses.

"The four digit mailboxes are no more. People are being assigned new mailboxes by street addresses," said Clearwater postmistress Millie Rempel.

Canada Post is switching all the roughly 1,650 households on the two rural routes in Clearwater from mailbox numbers to civic addresses, she said.

New community mailboxes will be installed. Each compartment in the mailbox will have its own lock built into its door, so users won't need to provide their own padlocks any more.

The new community mailboxes will be taller than the existing ones and mounted on concrete pads, she said.

The two rural routes will be assigned their own postal codes. Mail coming to the mailboxes in the post office will keep the old V0E 1N0.

People without rural mail delivery service can get mailboxes at the post office without charge.

Some people are at risk of losing their mail delivery service as a result of the changeover, Rempel warned.

She gave as an example someone who moved to certain area of Clearwater several years ago. That person subsequently moved to a different area in town but kept the old rural route mailbox rather than bother with changing his or her address.

Following the upcoming changeover, that person could find his or her mail ending up in General Delivery at the post office. Because only enough new mailboxes will be provided to meet the known users at each site, that person could also find himself or herself waiting several months before getting a new mailbox compartment based on his or her street address.

Rempel said she has been checking for street addresses in the telephone book but quite a few people use cellphones or otherwise have unlisted numbers.

"I need people's assistance over the next two weeks so we can find out the number of compartments needed," said the local postmistress. "We have to get them right the first time around."

The goal is to have the master list of street addresses confirmed by mid-March. After that, the new community mailboxes and street addresses should be completed by July 31.

Canada Post will be offering free change of address services for one year.

A similar changeover from rural mailbox numbers to street addresses is happening in Barriere as well.

Anyone with any questions about the process should call Rempel at 250-674-3711.