Stratford council voted Tuesday to keep the local Kinsmen club’s two annual parades — the Canada Day Parade and the Santa Claus Parade — off of provincially regulated highways this year, including Ontario, Erie and Huron streets.
Despite a plea from the Kinsmen to allow the club to use Ontario, Erie and Huron Streets for its two annual parades, Stratford council voted Tuesday to keep parades to local streets only this year and review whether that will become the norm at the beginning of 2023 .
As club member and Canada Day Parade co-chair Bob Walters explained at the beginning of Tuesday’s meeting, the city had been allowing, with Ontario Ministry of Transportation approval, the closures of the three provincially controlled roads for the annual parades for more than 30 years .
“The citizens of Stratford are proud that our city is rich in history and heritage. Forbidding the parades from traveling through the picturesque heritage district of downtown Stratford would be removing a nostalgic sense of the past that is so important for our citizens,” Walters said. “To shut the parades away from the downtown core is disingenuous, to say the least, considering the amount of extra business this brings to our downtown merchants.”
However, city staff had raised significant concerns at a May 9 committee meeting about staff and volunteer safety following reports from past parades of vehicles being driven around barricades and onto sidewalks after those roads were closed. Staff also noted the amount of time and resources staff needed to get ministry approval to close portions of the roads for parades and deliver, set up and take down barricades and signage.
After a lengthy debate, the committee ultimately recommended that council authorize the 2022 Canada Day Parade on local streets only and that no parades be permitted on provincially regulated roads this year, including Huron, Ontario and Erie streets.
“If the recommendation coming from the May 9 infrastructure, transportation and safety committee is approved, it could have the potential to kill the Canada Day and Santa Claus parades that have been annual events in Stratford for over three decades. The citizens and residents of Stratford would be the losers,” Walters said.
Because the Canada Day Parade is not able to follow its normal route this year as a result of ongoing Huron Street reconstruction, Walters told council the Kinsmen Club had recommended to city staff the Canada Day Parade instead follow a route that would encompass portions of Ontario and Erie streets, as well as Downie and St. Patrick streets in the city’s downtown. However, Walters said that recommendation was not presented to councilors at their May 9 committee meeting.
“I think we have a community group and many volunteers here that, for decades, have put in their time and resources into these events,” Coun. Cody Sebben said Tuesday. “This motion, I don’t feel it’s how we can show our appreciation or even recognition of the value that (the parades) bring to our community. I feel it (has) quite the opposite message. It would be different if the city was running the parades, but we’re not. Here we have a community group that is willing to put in the time and resources to do this, and we are making it very difficult for them.”
Taking issue with Sebben’s suggestion that council would be showing a lack of appreciation, Coun. Kathy Vassilakos reiterated that staff had brought forward legitimate safety concerns that council and parade organizers need to take seriously.
“I do have concerns about using MTO-regulated highways for community events. If we didn’t have other appropriate roads or areas of the city where we could actually do something like this, then I could see where we may actually take the risk. But to my understanding, there have been a couple near misses on Huron Street. We know on Huron Street, over the last few years, the volumes of traffic and aggressive driving in that area has risen significantly.”
Vassilakos suggested staff could look at methods of alleviating the pedestrian and vehicle congestion that happens after both parades by identifying new routes.
“Tradition is great, but sometimes when change comes along we can do something that’s even better,” she said.
Public works manager Adam Ryan said staff had already proposed several alternative routes to the Kinsmen Club for this year’s Canada Day Parade, including one that encompasses a portion of McCarthy Road, one focused entirely in the city’s downtown area, and another along Lakeside Drive.
Following council’s decision — passed after a 5-2 vote, with Sebben and Coun. Bonnie Henderson opposed and Mayor Dan Mathieson and Couns. Danielle Ingram and Jo-Dee Burbach absent — staff will now work with the local Kinsmen to determine which proposed route will work best for Canada Day 2022.
As for the Santa Claus Parade, staff has been asked to present alternative routes for that parade that would not use any portion of the provincial highways.
Councilors will then review early next year whether limiting parades to local roads should continue. A small section of Ontario Road, however, will still be closed on Nov. 11 each year to allow the Remembrance Day Parade to cross that street on its way to the Stratford Cenotaph.