Task Force signs deal with Canada Post for graffiti clean-up

KAMLOOPS — There are plans to have every graffiti covered mailbox in Kamloops clean before the end of September after Canada Post signed a three-year agreement with the city’s Graffiti Task Force.

Ronnie Bouvier with the Task Force says the agreement came after a communication failure between the city, Canada Post’s Ottawa office and the Kelowna company the crown corporation had hired to clean-up the graffiti.

The issue for this city was the graffiti covering mailboxes wasn’t getting cleaned off in a timely manner making for an unsightly downtown core.

Last month during a coordinated enforcement task force meeting, Mayor Peter Milobar commented the Crown corporation’s response to the city's graffiti concerns was to tell them to call a 1-800 service number.

Bouvier says it wasn't that Canada Post didn't want to deal with the issue. She says it was a communication breakdown.

“Miscommunication can really cause issues,” Bouvier says. "(Canada Post) was very apologetic for the miscommunication."

With the apology came $6,000 for supplies and a three-year contract, which means from now on the Graffiti Task Force will clean all tagged boxes. Bouvier hopes to have them all within the city taken care of by mid-September.

She says between Canada Post’s contractor and the Task Force, more than 100 boxes have been cleaned since July 30.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Glynn Brothen at gbrothen@infonews.ca, or call 250-319-7494. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.