Canada Post and the union representing its employees are in a 30-day “cooling off period,” as of July 8, with no plans of a work stoppage or lockout during that time.

But with a shutdown of national postal service still possible in the coming months, Brock University is urging people to prepare to use alternative methods for having time-sensitive materials sent out or delivered to campus.

External parties, including international students, who need to send documents to Brock on a deadline basis should use private couriers or, if possible, send digital documents by email to the appropriate University department.

Internally, if Canada Post does shut down, all Brock employee expense reimbursement cheques will be distributed internally to departments. Brock payments to external vendors will be deferred for one week, and if mail service has not been restored, they will be sent out by courier or made available for pickup in Financial Services if requested.

University Mail Services will continue to pick up outgoing mail from each department daily and process it, so that delays are minimized when any work stoppage ends.

Courier shipments (Purolator, UPS, FedEx, DHL etc.) will not be affected by any Canada Post work stoppage. Mail Services supervisor Kevin Lawr says most couriers offer next-day service within North America, while global delivery times generally range from one to four days.