Regional directors have joined their municipal counterparts in sending an angry letter to Canada Post after the agency announced its intention of charging a $200 fee for installing group post boxes.

The cost is being imposed onto the builder but director Al Raine believes the expense will be ultimately be passed down the homeowner and that’s not right.

“Seems to me there’s something bizarre about that,” Raine said Thursday.

Canada Post sent letters to builders and developers across the country last month, notifying them they would have to start paying $200 per household/unit in new subdivisions for community mail boxes.

The Thompson-Nicola Regional District board received the same letter in its package for Thursday’s meeting.

Although many rural communities already have group mailboxes, directors don’t like the idea that residents haven’t had to pay for the postal service and now some will.

Director Nancy Bepple suggests the letter of complaint be sent to Canada Post and Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo MP Cathy McLeod. She said everyone should have the same right to free postal delivery.

“You will have to pay for that. It will go to the homeowner. The developer won’t pay the cost,” she said.

Director Tina Lange opposed the motion, saying the fee is another example of the rising costs of living.

“This is simply, in my mind, the cost of building a new home,” she said, adding this is a one-time fee.