Calgarians panicked as Canada Post strike enters fourth week

The impacts of the Canada Post strike are ramping up as other shippers pause their pick-ups to clear growing backlogs.

Purolator and UPS have both temporarily halted shipments from some courier companies as they try to work through a deluge of deliveries brought on by the strike.

Small businesses in Calgary say it’s creating an even bigger backlog at the height of the holiday shipping season.

“We’ve got 10 to 15 containers full of packages just in Calgary alone that they need to process before they can take anything new,” KnifeWear’s Ellie Pickett said.

“It really hurts with two or three weeks until Christmas, and shipping date deadlines cutting off. We just had that big Black Friday rush and we can’t get people their packages.

“We’re kind of screwed right now.”

KnifeWear employees and its customers aren’t alone in their misery.

Service Canada has paused delivery of roughly 185,000 passports, which has led to an influx of in-person pick-up requests and lines at the federal government’s Harry Hays Building.

Natasha Heron, who needed to renew her document, took the afternoon off work to wait in a lengthy queue.

“If you want to travel, you need your passport, and I just don’t want to be confined,” she told CTV News.

“I’m hoping (end of the work stoppage) will be soon and that things will roll out smoothly, so I don’t have to come back and wait in line again.”

The strike, entering its fourth week, is causing headaches on campuses, too.

SAIT student Dustin Dorsey has been waiting on a $1,000 scholarship that currently has no ETA.

“I’ve called Alberta Student Aid, and they say they can’t (send the money) because there’s a postal strike and they’re holding everything,” Dorsey said. “(That scholarship) is everything to me. It’s food money, rent money.”

Canada Post said Thursday it was reviewing new counter proposals submitted by the union representing more than 55,000 postal employees, who walked off the job three weeks ago.

The sticking points include wages and a push to expand into weekend delivery, with the two sides in disagreement over how to staff the expansion.

Calls for federal intervention have been mounting from the business community, but so far the government has said it's not stepping in.

With files from The Canadian Press