Joe McWilliams
Lakeside Leader

Slave Lake was awash last week with talk of delays in mail arriving in mailboxes. The reason, said the social media chatter, was because the P.O. was short-staffed, after the deadline passed by which employees were required to have COVID-19 vaccinations – or else.

This situation has not exactly been confirmed by Canada Post, but if you read between the lines…..

Here’s what an official Canada Post spokesperson, Valérie Chartrand, said in response to The Leader’s questions, via email.

“Canada Post’s Mandatory Vaccine Practice came into effect on November 27, 2021. Any employee who is not currently in compliance with the policy has been placed on leave without pay.”

So have any local postal employees been placed on leave? Nobody is commenting, but the apparent delay in getting the mail distributed suggests it is the case. All we got from the manager was “we are still sorting the mail,” and that it would all get delivered.

Chartrand, again: “We are not anticipating any major service disruptions. There may be a few isolated cases where a post office may see reduced hours or temporarily close due to staffing issues.”