As postmaster, Bell has been responsible for all that goes on in the Deloraine Post Office. This includes hiring and training staff, ordering, bookwork and more. She was also in charge of the building itself, which meant safety and maintenance. This meant the boiler, which was just replaced in 2025. She remembers previous to that, they had many issues with the old system, and sometimes they would arrive in the morning and the building would be freezing.
Around 1990, Bell became a field service associate, at the suggestion of Astle. It involved going to other offices and doing audits, counting cash and making sure everything was running efficiently. In 2006, her office became one of the few Pay Hubs to avoid sending pay sheets directly to Ottawa. There were four in southwestern Manitoba and each were responsible for inputting pay sheets. Her office did all of the ROM postal codes, 16 offices in all. In 2008, she was certified as a peer mentor, making her the trainer for the area. New hires would get 32 hours of training. Bell became the go-to person for her colleagues, meaning she herself had to do a lot of training in cities like Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Regina and Ottawa.
“I thoroughly enjoyed this duty as it allowed me to meet many postmasters from all over Canada who I still have connections with,” Bell stated. “My office has always been extremely busy especially with me assisting fellow PM’s but that is something that I have taken great pride in knowing that every office could call me anytime even while I was on leave, I was always available to help them out.”
Over 40 years, there have been many changes in the postal world, and the Deloraine Post Office is no different. Bell said when she started in 1986, everything was manual, so everyone had their own cash drawer. Cash registers came in with till slips. Eventually, full automation came with computers, a system that has changed a few times since implementation. Bell said looking back, she is not sure how they were able to handle manual services, particularly at Christmas.
“It is not quite as easy as just selling a stamp though as over the years we have increased the services that we provide to our customers. There are many different ways to ship something, and we have also added services such as Money Grams, selling Prepaid Phone vouchers, Mint Coins, Customer Proofing, Money Orders, Gift Cards, Reloadable Visa cards and many more. There was a time when we sold T-shirts, Christmas Ornaments, Greeting Cards and Piggy Banks. Canada Post has tried implementing many retail items over the years.”
Bell added whenever they add someone to staff, they always comment about how they did not know how much was going on there. There is a growing misconception about the difference between city and rural postal services, saying she knows the people who came through her door and could rattle off post box numbers. It has always been a customer first mentality, which you do not see in the city.
The customers and her co-workers are what Bell will miss the most. She would come in early, stay late and pop in on weekends to catch up with work. As she stated, it was never about a paycheque for her. Bell put her heart and soul into her position. She said she would miss the job, especially the first while. Her plan is to be more available to help at the farm, joking that she will likely miss the post office even more then. It was a career that was also service to her community.
“I know the entire community better than anyone I think so I will miss seeing everyone on a daily basis,” Bell explained. “I always would lead by example and never asked anything of my employees that I wouldn’t do myself. I am very proud of my time there and I will miss the people. I know I served my customers very well and I think they would all say that too.”
by PAUL RAYNER, Recorder staff