WELLINGTON COUNTY – “Building Homes on Public Lands” is a section in the “More Affordable Homes” chapter of the 2024 federal budget, and two Wellington County post office properties might be among those that could be considered for housing in the future.
The post offices at 178 Guelph St. in Rockwood and 83 Main St. in Erin are single-storey brick buildings with small parking lots. At first glance, they might not seem like ideal sites to help the government fulfill a promise of creating more homes.
But the two towns are listed in Budget 2024 among nine Ontario “sample Canada Post properties that could be unlocked for housing.”
This list is part of an image showing two dozen Canada Post properties across the county. It follows a section of the budget that announces the government’s intention to launch a new Canada Post Housing Program supporting affordable housing providers to build on disposed or leased Canada Post properties.
“Details will be available later this year,” it reads.
The Erin and Rockwood properties are not among the first Canada Post sites being considered.
According to the budget document, Canada Post manages a land portfolio that includes more than 1,700 post offices across the country.
“Many of these sites often house one-storey Canada Post buildings, which could be leveraged to build new homes . . .” it says.
It goes on to list three addresses in Quebec, one in Alberta, and two in British Columbia that are currently being assessed for development potential.
“These six properties are just the start,” it states.
It’s not clear why the Erin and Rockwood post offices were included in the budget’s sample properties list, and emails to Canada Post’s media relations team yielded no answer.
“In collaboration with Canada Lands Company, we have agreed to undertake an assessment of our properties to explore their viability for alternate use, including as residential properties,” media relations representative Lisa Liu stated in an email response to an Advertiser inquiry.
Liu went on to explain the six properties in Quebec, Alberta and B.C. listed in the budget had been previously identified as surplus, and “the process of disbursement had already begun.”
The post offices in Rockwood and Erin provide “all postal services” to their respective communities, Liu stated.
They also serve as letter carrier depots to Canada Post delivery agents to prepare the mail for their routes, she added, noting there are approximately 10 employees working at the two facilities.
The Erin post office is open Monday to Friday from 8:30am to 5:45pm, and Saturday from 9am to noon.
The Rockwood post office is open Monday to Friday from 8am to 5pm, and Saturday from 9am to noon.
