As Canada Post moves forward with plans to phase out door-to-door mail delivery in urban areas, the agency now says it’s found a solution for people unable to access community mailboxes – a doctor’s note.

"Asking for a doctor's note is pretty commonplace when you look at other assistance or accommodation programs," Canada Post spokesperson Jon Hamilton told CTVNews.ca.

However, Hamilton said, the notes might not be necessary for most customers, because Canada Post is putting other alternatives in place.

It’s currently in the process of mailing out questionnaires to people who have already informed the agency they will need assistance retrieving mail from a superbox.

"We talked to experts in many fields of mobility and disability issues and what they've told us loud and clear is, 'You need to be able to tailor the solutions to every individual circumstance'," Hamilton said.

Possible accommodations include providing extra keys to caregivers, or putting trays in community mailboxes for people who have no issue reaching the mailbox, but have trouble retrieving their correspondence from it.

People in wheelchairs could be assigned boxes at a lower level, Hamilton said, while mail could also be redirected to a nearby post office.

Those solutions don’t sound like enough to Cambridge resident Susan Dixon.

When Canada Post first announced its plans to end door-to-door delivery, Dixon started an online petition against the move.

“I thought it was an outrage,” she said Thursday.

“I thought about my son, and the struggles we have going through snow and ice and heat. Then I thought about other people that have mobility and disability issues. It’s not fair.”

Dixon has received more than 150,000 signatures on her petition, and attracted the attention of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.

She questions how the agency could monitor and respond to doctor’s note submissions as quickly as they come in.

Canada Post plans to eliminate door-to-door delivery in urban centres within five years, affecting about one-third of households across the country.

With files from CTVNews.ca