紐時賞析／加拿大極北：郵政不僅送信 更是命脈

加拿大郵政位於西北領地辛普森堡的辦事處在員工罷工後依舊開放，但服務項目受限。紐約時報

In Far North, Canada Post Isn't Just the Mail. It’s a Lifeline.

加拿大極北：郵政不僅送信 更是命脈

A week into a strike postal workers in Canada began Sept. 25, a sense of disconnection was setting in at the village of Fort Simpson, in the Far North of Canada.

加拿大郵政員工自9月25日起罷工一週後，加國極北地區辛普森堡感受到一種與世隔絕的氛圍。

For communities like Fort Simpson, the Canada Post — the long-ailing, government-owned postal service — is essential, and for a lot more than just letters. Medication, spare parts and business supplies all arrive by mail delivered only by Canada Post.

對辛普森堡這類社區而言，長期經營不善、國營的郵政服務加拿大郵政至關重要，且其重要性遠遠超出單純的信件寄送。藥品、備用零件和商業物資全仰賴加拿大郵政獨家配送的郵件服務。

Fort Simpson, a cluster of homes on an island, is, by many measures, tiny and remote — a community of roughly 1,100 an hour’s flight away from the capital of the Northwest Territories, Yellowknife. But in the ecosystem of the Canadian North, which is dotted with even smaller hamlets of just a handful of people living above the 60th parallel, Fort Simpson, with its police station, bank and post office, is actually a vital hub. It serves as the nearest point for essential retail, banking and medical services for Sambaa K’e, Nahanni Butte and other communities reachable predominantly by air.

辛普森堡是坐落在一個小島上的小型聚落，從許多方面看，這是個狹小且遙遠、距離西北領地首府黃刀鎮飛航航程約1小時，且人口僅1100人的小鎮。然而，在加拿大北部這個生態系統中，散佈着比辛普森堡更小的村落，有些僅有數人居住在北緯60度以北，辛普森堡憑藉其警察局、銀行和郵局，實際上是一個重要的樞紐。它爲桑巴科、納漢尼布特等主要靠航空運輸抵達的社區提供最近的必需零售、銀行和醫療服務。

The embattled Canada Post is a core part of what connects these remote places and their residents to one another, to vital services and to the rest of Canada, the world’s second-largest nation by landmass after Russia.

處境艱難的加拿大郵政是連接這些偏遠地區和其居民彼此聯繫，獲取重要服務和加拿大其他地方的核心部分。加拿大國土面積是世界第二，僅次俄羅斯。

Prime Minister Mark Carney was elected this year on a promise to defend Canada’s sovereignty and knit closer the vast territory, much of which is largely uninhabited. Providing services to all Canadians is seen as a state obligation, and many also want to ensure that Indigenous people can continue to live on their ancestral lands, with Canada Post playing a key role keeping them connected to the rest of country.

總理卡尼今年當選時承諾捍衛加拿大的主權，並將這個大部分地區人煙稀少的廣大領土更緊密地聯繫起來。爲所有加拿大人提供服務被視爲國家的義務，許多人也希望確保原住民能夠繼續在他們的祖先土地上生活，而加拿大郵政在維持他們與全國其他地區的聯繫中扮演關鍵角色。

But Canada Post is in a protracted existential crisis, hampered by collapsing mail volumes and competition from private companies with fewer labor protections. It has needed billions in taxpayer-funded cash injections to continue operating, and the current government wants to cancel door-to-door delivery for million of homes, consolidate services and shut down some rural post offices to reduce costs.

但加拿大郵政正處於曠日持久的生存危機，受郵件流通量暴跌和勞工保障較少的民營公司的競爭衝擊。它需要納稅人數十億美元注資才能繼續營運，而現任政府又想取消數百萬戶家庭的送件到府服務，並整合服務和關閉一些鄉村郵局減少成本。

Such cuts would probably lead to major layoffs among the service’s 68,000 employees, and members of the labor union representing postal workers walked off the job after the government announced its proposed cutback in services.

這些削減措施可能導致該機構68000名員工被大量裁員，代表郵政工人的工會成員在政府宣佈擬議的服務削減後，選擇罷工。

文／Matina Stevis-Gridneff，譯／羅方妤

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