Canada Post and Membertou celebrate new Community Hub with expanded services and support for local businesses

President and CEO Doug Ettinger proud to join Membertou Chief and CEO Terry Paul
to celebrate the opening of new pilot Community Hub, the first post office in this community

MEMBERTOU, NS, May 6, 2022 /CNW/ - Canada Post President and CEO Doug Ettinger and community leaders, including Chief Terry Paul, celebrated the Membertou Community Hub's grand opening today.

"I'm excited about what this Community Hub will mean to Membertou," says Mr. Ettinger. "Working closely with Membertou helped us to build this post office to meet local needs and provide important, new services to the community. We hope to learn more as we continue with pilots of the community hub model."

From left to right: Terry Paul, Chief and CEO of Membertou, Cheryl Hodder, Chief Sustainability and Legal Officer at Canada Post, Doug Ettinger, President and CEO of Canada Post, and David Meuse, Membertou Cultural Ambassador at the official opening of the Membertou Community Hub. (CNW Group/Canada Post)

"Welcoming Canada Post to Membertou is an important moment in our community," says Membertou Chief and CEO Terry Paul. "It provides necessary access to our entrepreneurs to grow and scale their businesses, and creates a meaningful partnership between Membertou and Canada Post. We're incredibly grateful for the thoughtful work that created this culturally and commercially significant office."

The Community Hub is a new kind of post office that gives the local Mi'kmaq community and businesses greater access to an expanded range of important products and services that were previously unavailable. Canada Post intends to take the key learnings from its experience with Membertou and help other communities and businesses to stay connected and succeed. Membertou's is the second pilot community hub in Canada; the first opened in High Prairie, Alta., last November. Canada Post plans to open two more community hub pilot sites later this year. The Hubs are intended to enable residents and businesses in Indigenous, rural or northern communities to better connect with others.

The Membertou Community Hub is the community's first post office. It offers an expanded range of postal services and small business support services:

• parcel lockers and self-serve contactless induction of items to be mailed;
• access to financial services, such as Canada Post MyMoney Loan™, remittance services, foreign currency exchange and cheque cashing, and an onsite automated teller machine (ATM).
• rentable meeting rooms, parcel packaging areas, and secure printing and shredding;
• public wireless Internet service and computers, as well as video conferencing capabilities;
• an interactive business directory, in support of the community's economic development strategy.

Design elements were chosen with the community, including electric vehicle charging stations, water bottle refilling stations, accessible parking and automatic doors. Signage is in Mi'kmaq, French and English, and the space showcases local artwork.

The Membertou Community Hub serves about 1,700 residents in or near the community. It is staffed by two full-time employees from Membertou, with the support of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.

^TMTrademark of Canada Post Corporation

SOURCE Canada Post

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