Toronto/CMEDIA: Children don’t have to worry about their letters not making it to Santa, despite the disruptions from the Canada Post strike that just ended, the postal agency reportedly said.
Canada Post provided an update Wednesday about its Santa Claus letter program in a press release, reassuring children that their letters will be delivered to the North Pole by Christmas Eve. However, Santa won’t have time to respond to them this year, the Crown corporation said.
“As Canada Post reopened its facilities yesterday…Please know that it will take time to stabilize our operations, however, like always, letters to Santa are handled with special care…scanners in our plants are set up to locate Santa letters…identified by HOH OHO postal code…We will be doing this for all Santa letters mailed by December 23…allows us to deliver these letters straight to the North Pole…Though Santa won’t have time to respond to letters…their letters will make it to him by Christmas Eve…Santa is looking forward to reading all the letters he receives…so privileged to be able to connect children and Santa over the holidays through our Santa letter program,” a Canada Post news release said.
Following the national workers’ strike which suspended deliveries earlier this month, deadlines for its Santa Claus letter program had been removed by Canada Post, except in certain cases such as for government pension and federal financial aid cheques, live animals and other living creatures.
The Santa Claus letter program helps deliver up to 1.5 million letters from Canadian children to the North Pole each year.
For more than 40 years, children around the world have written letters to Santa at the North Pole and received a personalized response through Canada Post’s Santa letter program.
Letters to Santa are typically answered by Canada Post volunteers, and delivered by postal workers.
According to Canada Post, the strike has created a backlog of a “couple million” parcels during the busy holiday shopping season.
Although employees were ordered back to work on Tuesday, the company said that it will take some time to clear the packages and letters that have been trapped for weeks.
The letter-writing program typically runs each year from Nov. 1 to the end of Jan and it was suggested by Canada Post that mailing your letter prior to Dec. 6 to receive a response before the holidays.
Following a negotiation agreement failure with their employer, Canada Post workers went on strike Nov. 15 , exactly one year after talks began. Federal mediation was put on hold Nov. 27 after mediators concluded the sides were too far apart.
The Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) ordered Canada Post employees to return to work on Tuesday under their existing contracts, which have been extended until May to allow the bargaining process to resume.
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The move was reportedly called “a clear violation of our Charter rights” by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW).
“Once again, postal workers’ Charter-protected rights to collective bargaining and to strike have been trampled on…in the face of yet another abuse of government power, postal workers will…continue to fight to get the good negotiated collective agreements they deserve,” CUPW national president Jan Simpson said in the statement.
