After months of having to travel to Calgary, Priddis residents can now get their parcels closer to home.
The Canada Post outlet in Priddis closed its doors in February, despite fundraising efforts of the community that brought in close to $12,000 to set up a new post office location in the hamlet. Residents were then forced to collect parcels from a location in Silverado in Calgary.
This wasn’t going to stand for Priddis business owner Jane Morgan, who runs Jane’s Addiction coffee shop and her new venture, Priddis Business Connections Inc.
She approached Canada Post in March to see if she could offer parcel service at her new business, which wasn’t quite ready to open its doors at the time.
“They invited me, once my business doors were open, to put in an application, which I did in May,” said Morgan. “The community missed it and I thought it might be a good fit with my new business.”
Her application was approved over the summer and Canada Post began working out logistics of the service she would provide.
Priddis Business Connections is now one of two pilot projects in Alberta providing what Canada Post has coined “Post Office Express.” She offers parcel pick-up, including registered letters requiring a signature, and Canada Post retail products like stamps, prepaid envelopes and prepaid boxes. Outgoing items are picked up each evening, she said.
Morgan’s business provides office and boardroom space for rent and services like photocopying, printing and faxing. She is also a commissioner for oaths and a bookkeeper, so she said the extra traffic helps spread the word about her services.
“This was a nice fit for me because now the post office generates a lot of traffic in here, which in a rural community it’s so difficult to advertise and reach your clients,” said Morgan. “So I can provide a service to people who really enjoy having it closer to home and also more people are learning about my business. Hopefully, they’ll grow off one another.”
Because they were on a tight timeline, Canada Post didn’t send out notification to residents about the new service, she said. The launch date was tentative until one week before her service outlet went live on Nov. 20, she said.
Postal workers are notifying people about the new pick-up location during the initial transition period, said Morgan.
MD Coun. Suzanne Oel said it’s great news for Priddis residents, who really felt the void left by the post office being removed from the hamlet.
“Postal service is something people value and the loss we felt previously was largely due to it bringing people to the hamlet of Priddis as a local gathering place,” said Oel. “We didn’t want to lose the amount of activity that was going on there.”
She said the hamlet can definitely handle the extra traffic generated from people collecting their packages or picking up stamps. Businesses are looking forward to seeing a little more traffic in Priddis again too, she said, because often people used to stop at the post office and then continue to other locations.
Oel said she and the community are grateful to Morgan for working with Canada Post to get some postal service back into Priddis.
“Jane is going to provide a good service and it’s going to be reliable and people will know she’s available,” said Oel. “The last time we reported on this it was a story of disappointment and loss. This is a little different now, we have a new chapter and it’s quite exciting because it’s an example of a community that didn’t give up.”
