Colville Lake, N.W.T., resident says the community waited nearly 3 weeks for mail
CBC
Gary Frey, a resident of Colville Lake, N.W.T., said his community went nearly three weeks with no mail and this isn't the first time it's happened.
The Sahtu community of about 150 people is only accessible by plane in the summer months and relies on a local airline, North-Wright Airways, to bring mail.
"It's odd, odd, odd and I don't know why," Frey told CBC News on Monday.
"I'd like to get an explanation for why I order something in mid-May and it's still isn't here."
Frey confirmed the mail did arrive on a flight on Tuesday, a day it doesn't normally arrive. He said it happened after several people in the community reached out about the delay.
This also isn't the first time people in Colville Lake have complained about mail delays. Frey and another local resident contacted CBC News about the same issue last October.
Kyle Newhook, operations manager at North-Wright Airways, wrote in an email to CBC News on Monday that he wasn't aware of any mail delays, but said there have been some issues with larger loads.
"We are getting larger loads at a slower frequency from the other carriers which causes some issues, so as mentioned before, any delays we receive from them get passed on, especially if our loads are already full," he wrote.
"But the issue that is being described to you is likely something more complicated."
Newhook wrote that North-Wright would be running a backup flight into the community on Tuesday to empty out the warehouse and "keep things moving."
Himanish Kaushal is the manager of the Colville Lake Co-op, which is a dealer for Canada Post. He said after the long delay in mail he also reached out to North-Wright Air.
"Anything that goes wrong ... it comes under my job responsibility to take care of it," he said.
Although Kaushal said he can understand residents' frustration over the delays, he also recognizes that it is complicated for the airline.
"They have to prioritize passenger luggage more than mail," he said, adding it's a small plane that can only take so much.
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