RED BAY, N.L. — Accessing postal services is no longer easy for an historic southern Labrador community.
The town of Red Bay’s post office closed on Oct. 31 as its host business, Red Bay Convenience, shut down.
A spokesperson for Canada Post told The Northern Pen it was unable to relocate the post office to another business.
It hopes to install mailboxes in the community by mid-November and is working with the town to determine the location.
In the meantime, customers are forced to pick up their mail and access full postal services in West St. Modeste, 37 kilometres away.
Deputy mayor Mervin Layden has concerns about the arrangement.
He notes the population is aging, with many residents aged 60 and older.
Most of them still prefer to receive bills through the mail rather than online.
But travelling outside of town for mail is not necessarily a trip they can do every day.
“They don’t want to be driving back and forth getting mail,” Layden told The Northern Pen.
He had concerns about outdoor mailboxes as well.
“Outdoor mailboxes aren’t going to be much better because that’ll be snowed over half the time,” he said.
He added Canada Post hasn’t had anyone visit the town yet, so he’s not optimistic the boxes will be installed by mid-November as promised.
According to Layden, the loss is two-fold.
Not only do people have to travel outside of town for mail, but the nearest grocery store is now 50 kilometres away in L’Anse-au-Loup.
He’s concerned about these losses to the town in conjunction with the lack of industry and outmigration.
“Everything is going downhill,” he said. “This (town) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but nobody cares.”
