Colville Lake, N.W.T., resident says the community waited nearly 3 weeks for mail

Gary Frey, a resident of Colville Lake, N.W.T., said his community went nearly three weeks with no mail and this isn't the first time it's happened.

The Sahtu community of about 150 people is only accessible by plane in the summer months and relies on a local airline, North-Wright Airways, to bring mail.

"It's odd, odd, odd and I don't know why," Frey told CBC News on Monday.

"I'd like to get an explanation for why I order something in mid-May and it still isn't here."

Frey confirmed the mail did arrive on a flight on Tuesday, a day it doesn't normally arrive. He said it happened after several people in the community reached out about the delay.

This also isn't the first time people in Colville Lake have complained about mail delays. Frey and another local resident contacted CBC News about the same issue last October.

Kyle Newhook, an operations manager at North-Wright Airways, wrote in an email to CBC News on Monday that he wasn't aware of any mail delays, but said there have been some issues with larger loads.

"We are getting larger loads at a slower frequency from the other carriers which causes some issues, so as mentioned before, any delays we receive from them get passed on, especially if our loads are already full," he wrote.

"But the issue that is being described to you is likely something more complicated."

Newhook wrote that North-Wright would be running a backup flight into the community on Tuesday to empty out the warehouse and "keep things moving."

Luggage vs. mail

Himanish Kaushal is the manager of the Colville Lake Co-op, which is a dealer for Canada Post. He said after the long delay in mail he also reached out to North-Wright Air.

"Anything that goes wrong ... it comes under my job responsibility to take care of it," he said.

Although Kaushal said he can understand residents' frustration over the delays, he also recognizes it is complicated for the airline.

"They have to prioritize passenger luggage more than mail," he said, adding it's a small plane that can only take so much.

"From a passenger point, if you're travelling to a community, you do want your luggage to be there."

Kaushal said the mail is supposed to arrive with the flights that come in Monday, Wednesday and Friday but he understands that it can't arrive on each flight.

He said one suggestion he has made is to change the flight routes for the mail arriving to make it more reliable.

It currently travels from Norman Wells, N.W.T., to Fort Good Hope and then Colville Lake, but Kaushal believes the mail should come on a direct flight from Yellowknife, which he says is often not full.

"Canada Post can come up with a better solution," he said.

In a statement to CBC News, Canada Post confirmed there was a delay in delivering mail "due to transportation capacity issues" and that services had resumed.

"We sincerely apologize to our customers for this inconvenience," the statement said.

Canada Post's website states the Crown corporation's mandate is to provide service across the country, including in rural regions.