MP spearheads battle to save Pointe-claire Village post office

Liberal MP for Lac-SaintLouis Francis Scarpaleggia will ask the federal minister responsible for Canada Post to overturn the decision to close the Pointe-Claire Village post office.

Now that the House of Commons is back in session, Scarpaleggia said, the post office’s imminent closure will be one of his first points of business.

This month, Canada Post announced it will shutter the post office on Lakeshore Rd. on Oct. 5, bringing to an end 150 years of service in the village.

“We want to get it on the record that we oppose this closure,” said Scarpaleggia in a telephone interview from Ottawa on Monday. “I am taking it as far as I possibly can.”

The post office plays an important role in the community, he said.

With 17 post offices closing across Canada this year, 10 of them in Quebec, Scarpaleggia said, he hopes the issue will resonate with other MPs.

He raised the issue in the House on Sept. 18.

When the city of PointeClaire was informed about the post office closure two weeks ago, Mayor Bill McMurchie said city officials were disappointed to learn there was no way to appeal.

At this point, the decision can only be overturned by a special decree from Denis Lebel, the minister responsible for Canada Post.

He said city officials are pleased Scarpaleggia will raise the issue in Ottawa and hopeful that the decision will somehow be reversed by the minister.

“It is not some two-byfour-metre addition to the end of mall,” McMurchie said.

The Pointe-Claire Vil- lage post office is a historic building at the corner of Lakeshore Rd. and Cartier Ave. dating back to the ’30s when the surrounding community was mostly rural.

A historical plaque in front of building states how postal service was originally provided in the village at Émile Legault’s general store on Lakeshore Rd. but demand for service led to the building’s construction in 1937.

The château-style build- ing was designed by Hugh Vallance, a Montreal architect who also designed McGill University’s Strathcona Medical Building, the Southam Building on Bleury St. and the Montreal Children’s Hospital.

McMurchie said the city of Pointe-Claire is not only concerned about the negative impact the post office closure would have on residents and village merchants but the future of the historic building.