Canada Post moves forward with new B.C. processing facility
By Trail Champion editor
Canada Post is investing $200 million in a new multi-purpose processing facility and related equipment to improve the flow of mail in B.C.
The plant at the Vancouver International Airport in Richmond will process letters, parcels, packets and advertising mail all under one roof.
Building a processing facility at the Vancouver International Airport is a strategic decision that will improve Canada Post’s access to vital transportation links, and allow Canada Post to continue to grow its eCommerce business, process the mail faster, improve its delivery logistics, and provide better customer service.
Vancouver is responsible for postal delivery in British Columbia and the Yukon, and accounts for 10 per cent of national mail volumes.
A long-term land lease has been secured with the Vancouver Airport Authority, and the new postal facility will be situated on 42 acres of land at the city’s international airport. Construction on the 700,000-square-foot processing facility is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2011 and is expected to be fully operational in 2014.
Vancouver is one of three international access points for Canada Post and plays a role in facilitating trade with Asian countries. With its international role, the new Vancouver processing facility will house a Canada Border Services Agency operation.
The new postal facility will be built to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards, and will take up as small an ecological footprint as possible.
No full- or part-time employee will lose their job as a result of the new processing facility being built at the Vancouver International Airport.
Employees will move to the new airport location from the current mail processing plant at 349 Georgia Street W. and the Vancouver Parcel Delivery Centre in Richmond.
Canada Post anticipates that it will continue to operate at the Georgia Street W. facility until 2015. The corporation will retain a strong retail and delivery presence in downtown Vancouver.
