‘A slap in the face’: Community newspapers go undelivered amid Canada Post labour unrest

As of Monday morning, workers at the Crown corporation have stopped delivering flyers — but that designation also includes some free community newspapers.

Some Manitobans will be missing out on their local community news due to a recent labour dispute at Canada Post.

As of Monday morning, workers have stopped delivering unaddressed mail — what the Crown corporation calls “neighbourhood mail.” That designation also includes flyers, coupons, and unaddressed publications like magazines and community newspapers.

Mark Buss, president of the Manitoba Community Newspaper Association (MCNA), as well as Clipper Press in Beausejour, says the action means around 3,000 readers in the rural municipalities of Brokenhead and Springfield won’t be receiving their regular copies of their local papers.

“It’s embarrassing, really… to consider us being advertising and whatnot,” Buss told 680 CJOB’s The Start.

“For what we do, keeping people informed as to what’s going on in their communities, it really was a slap in the face.”

Canada Post classifies unaddressed community papers in the same category as flyers, a designation the MCNA and some in the industry disagree with.

“Community newspapers are not flyers. We are publications and we’re vital to our economies,” said Lana Meier, publisher with Interlake Graphics. The company publishes six weekly papers in Manitoba and relies on Canada Post to distribute roughly 25 per cent of its circulation of 55,000.

Meier called upon her connections in the distribution areas to help, but says it will increase costs.