Canada Post announces its first depot using all-electric vehicles

NANAIMO, BCMarch 9, 2023 /CNW/ – Canada Post today unveiled its first depot using battery-electric corporate delivery vehicles, reinforcing the company’s commitment to electrify its last mile fleet and help build a sustainable future for Canadians.

The company’s Nanaimo depot will use 14 fully electric cargo vans for collection and delivery services, replacing internal combustion vehicles. As part of Canada Post’s plan to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, the company has committed to electrifying half of its national fleet of approximately 14,000 vehicles by 2030 and the entire fleet by 2040. Continue reading

How Canada’s rural mail carriers are navigating surging gas prices 

A mail carrier says her out-of-pocket costs for delivering packages along her rural route have doubled because of the steep hike in gas prices and cost of living being experienced by many Canadians.“The stress is exhausting,” said Jennifer Henson, a Calgary mother of two boys and one of 11,000 rural and suburban mail carriers delivering letters for Canada Post across the country.

More: How Canada’s rural mail carriers are navigating surging gas prices – National | Globalnews.ca

China blames mail from Canada for COVID outbreak: Canada calls claim “ludicrous”, “comical”

Dr. Eric Feigel Ding, an epidemiologist formerly on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health recently posted on twitter a document from the Chinese Center for Disease Control, published in January, which suggests that the most recent outbreak of a new Omicron sub-variant may have been introduced in the Beijing area via postal mail from Canada.

Here’s Dr. Ding’s tweet:

The South China Morning Post reported on the incident on January 17, while also pointing out that:

China has repeatedly touted the idea that it is possible to be infected with the coronavirus by touching contaminated objects, particularly via the cold chain.

Its health officials have also suggested repeatedly that the cold chain may have brought the coronavirus to Wuhan in late 2019 in the first place, and have urged studies to be carried out internationally.

However, the theory has been dismissed by most scientists in other countries as highly unlikely. Although samples taken from the surface of an object can test positive, they may not be infectious, because they may be dead traces of the coronavirus. Even if a sample can infect living cells in a laboratory, it takes a certain viral load to infect a person.

In Canada, the Globe and Mail reported that:

A claim by Chinese health authorities that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 was introduced to a resident of Beijing through a piece of regular mail from Canada was dismissed Monday as being ludicrous and comical.

Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, a China expert at the University of Ottawa who spent more than three decades in the federal public service working on China issues, said Chinese officials need to familiarize themselves with the latest scientific material on the spread of COVID-19.

“Unlike the early days, scientists have clarified that it does not stay on surfaces. To suggest that it would be on mail that came over days from Canada is ludicrous,” she said.