January 25, 2005

(Letter sent to the editor of the Linn's Stamp News)

Dear Editor:

I would like to respond to your January 17th Readers' Opinion, "Canadian quagmire" in which Savoy Horvath of Readstown, Wisconsin blames Canada Post for mail being returned to senders in the USA.

The complete name and address of both the sender and the recipient are required on articles of mail sent to Canada containing merchandise or articles subject to Customs control. The requirement for mandatory inclusion of sender name was reinforced as a result of a World Customs Organization and Universal Postal Union agreement that became effective in January 2004. Failure to comply with the above requirement may result in the return of such items to the administration of origin.

Mail coming in to Canada is broken out into three categories; letters, packets and parcels and presented to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) for inspection. CBSA staff conduct a primary sort to determine if further inspection is required for duties or contraband enforcement. The mail then goes to a secondary Customs area, where address information is data entered onto a CBSA system and, on instruction from the CBSA, mail that does have complete sender information is scanned, labeled and returned to the country of origin.

Canada Post is in the business of delivering mail and makes every effort to finalize addresses that are incomplete to avoid having items returned to sender. However, until international mail is cleared by the Canada Border Services Agency, Canada Post cannot affect delivery.

Sincerely,

John Caines
Manager, National Media Relations
Ottawa, Canada (613) 734-7675