Charlottetown Post Office Not Accessible

I paid my first visit to the new Charlottetown Post Office last week – it has moved up Kent Street to the corner of Kent and Queen – and on my way in the front door I noticed a step up that would prevent access by anyone in a wheelchair or with other mobility issues. There was nothing on the door to indicate means for alternate access.

I asked the clerk at the desk and they told me that the accessible entrance was off Queen Street, but when I investigated I found that, although there is indeed an accessible entrance from the street into the post box annex, the door between the annex and the counter service area of the office is not accessible. Which means that it’s essentially not accessible at all.

While all public buildings should be accessible to all, federally managed buildings should be in the forefront, especially buildings that have recently undergone a complete renovation.

The clerk at the Post Office recommended that I call Canada Post to complain about this. This Make a Complaint page seems to be the proper starting point for this process. If you feel as I do, I invite you to join me in asking Canada Post to right this.

Update: The toll-free number on the Ombudsman page doesn’t appear to work. I was able to get through to 1-416-979-8822, but there’s no option there for making a complaint, so I pressed ‘0’ to talk to an operator. After about 15 minutes of looking things up and taking my details I was given file number 101402302, while you may wish to quote if you call yourself. I was promised a call back within 5 business days.

Comments

Oliver's picture
Oliver on September 7, 2011 - 16:40 Permalink

Good on ya, Pete!

Peter Rukavina's picture
Peter Rukavina on September 15, 2011 - 14:56 Permalink

Update: having not received a call back, as promised, from Canada Post, I called them this morning for an update. After waiting for 26 minutes, mostly on hold, I was transferred to a supervisor who told me that the file had been transferred to the “retail business manager.” She offered to put me back on hold so she could contact this person for an update.


After 2 minutes she came back and told me that it was a different person that needed to be contacted and promised to send that person an email and ask them to contact me with an update.

Peter Rukavina's picture
Peter Rukavina on September 16, 2011 - 15:44 Permalink

Update: I received a call today from someone at Canada Post indicating that they’ve instructed staff to leave the door between the post boxes and the counter service area propped open to allow for unimpeded access.

Peter Rukavina's picture
Peter Rukavina on September 16, 2011 - 15:49 Permalink

Update: 3 minutes after the last call from Canada Post someone from their Ottawa office called me back asking if I could tell them what the address of the post office in question was. I told them about the earlier call.