Canada Post addressing change

Status

North Cowichan staff are working with Canada Post on harmonizing the town name for addresses that are currently using Duncan, to be changed to North Cowichan. The change is expected to be implemented in 2025.

The change will only affect addresses that are in North Cowichan and are currently using Duncan as their mailing address. North Cowichan addresses currently using Crofton or Chemainus would not be affected and they would continue to use those community names in their mailing address.

This initiative stems from North Cowichan’s 150th anniversary celebrations in 2023. North Cowichan has a long history of attempting to change the mailing address for North Cowichan properties, however until recently Canada Post had not granted approval to the requests. In 2023 Langford was successful in changing their postal address from Victoria, and it was due to this that North Cowichan approached Canada Post to discuss the opportunity further.

Quick facts:

  • Canada Post is scheduling this project for sometime in 2025, at which time they will notify affected addresses regarding details.
  • Those receiving mail with “Duncan” as the city, will still be successfully delivered as Duncan will be listed as a secondary city in the Canada Post database. 
  • North Cowichan has been taking this opportunity to standardize a small number of addressing anomalies that are currently in its land databases. 
  • The project would extend to other places a postal address is used through database sharing. This includes parcel and online delivery services, digital mapping, and 9-1-1 call services. 

More information will be shared here as the project date with Canada Post nears.