Canada Post officials are denying they meant to tell anyone to move their emergency number along with their mail boxes, but say the boxes must have either their name or the number painted on the box.Scott Lewis, the communications person for this area, was on vacation last week.

Monday, he said the post office recognizes that the green number signs are "the 911 number," but rural subscribers may paint the number on the box while leaving the green sign where it is supposed to be.

He said Canada Post serves 843,000 rural mail boxes in Canada and those are all under review following about 2,000 complaints from mail carriers and as many as 40 from Human Resources Canada about the safety of the locations.

"We were directed by the Government of Canada (to review the locations). We want to maintain rural delivery (to the boxes) as long as possible."

If it's not possible to place the boxes close to their present locations safely, he said the alternative in some cases might be a cluster (some kind of common box).He said the locations didn't "suddenly" become unsafe.

Populations are growing, roads being widened, speeds increasing, he said.

Among other rural delivery changes, the post office says it "has taken steps to increase the visibility of the vehicles driven by its Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers (RSMC), equipping each with rooftop signs and flashing amber lights. But enhanced visibility does not address all situations where Canada Post employees, customers and other drivers are at risk."

The location criteria were not developed by Canada Post but by an independent third party, Mr. Lewis said.

He provided a list of some factors involved in the decisions.

These include, but are not limited to: "an assessment of legal restrictions that apply to the location; the number of lanes; the number of vehicles; the position of the stopped mail carrier's vehicle; the presence of double yellow centerline markings; the sight distances for approaching drivers to the stopped mail carrier's vehicle; the sight distances for the mail carrier to merge in traffic."