Canada Post apologizes after delivery suspended to Roncesvalles homes for weeks without notice

Chris Winter opens his mailbox in front of his home on Sorauren Avenue, and is greeted by what's been a rare sight lately: a handful of letters. 

After waiting for weeks, "now I'm getting mail again," he said. "So, who knows?" 

Winter is one of a number of Roncesvalles residents whose mail was interrupted — or stopped completely — since the second week of October. 

And, like his neighbours, he never heard anything from Canada Post prior to the delivery suspension. 

"We didn't get anything, and nobody else got anything... and that's the strange thing about the story," he told CBC Toronto.

A few blocks away, on Pearson Avenue, Jamie Khan and a few of her neighbours found themselves in the same boat: without mail, and without a reason why. 

"We all talked… and none of us had received our mail for three weeks, and none of us had received a notice," she said. 

Eventually, after a number of calls to Canada Post and a chat with their local mail carrier, a supervisor arrived on their street and explained what was happening.

It turns out Canada Post conducted a safety review in the neighbourhood, and identified a number of houses that had problems with their walkways, steps and porches. 

According to the supervisor, "each of us had different problems," Khan said, adding that she has heard a total of about 40 houses were flagged for issues. Canada Post would not confirm that number ot CBC News. 

At her house, "the stairs are uneven and the walkway is kind of craggy," while for her neighbours, the issues were a lack of a handrail on the steps and a letter slot that's placed too high. 

The part that irked them, say Khan and Winter, is that nobody let them know. 

"Unfortunately we did not inform customers about the safety issues and temporary service suspension. We have processes in place, and they weren't followed," said a Canada Post spokesperson in an email to the CBC.  

"We apologize to our customers and have reviewed the process with the people involved."