West Nipissing council cancelled the annual Christmas Parade of Lights in Sturgeon Falls because it’s too difficult to police COVID-19 safety protocols.
The decision was made during the council meeting Tuesday evening after Stephan Poulin, director of economic development and community services gave a pandemic update.
Poulin said the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit didn’t want to provide a position on the matter, although it was said organizers of an event inviting a public gathering are responsible for enforcement.
“It would be tough on the OPP and it would also be tough on us as the host organization to police certain aspects, such as distancing on floats and vehicles, or asking all the participants not to hand out candies,” he said.
Only Councillor Yvon Duhaime spoke against the “unfortunate” decision, although not all were polled as the majority decision was reached before an official vote.
Duhaime said his family was looking forward to the annual event and would stay within “our bubble.” He said float participants could wear masks for safety, adding it was “ironic” a positive community gathering is being spiked when you see as many as 10 people at the Beer Store.
Mayor Joanne Savage said it was “heartbreaking the event, for the right reason, is being cancelled” but said they should still urge residents to light-up the community themselves.
“We can at least, as a municipality and council, along with its administration, promote and engage residents of our community to light up and decorate for Christmas and provide that opportunity of joy for our kids,” Savage said, adding that families are saying they still want to enjoy the festive season.
The spike in COVID-19 cases in Ontario, including five active positive cases in North Bay, fueled even more concern amongst councillors about mitigating viral spread.
The risk of people coming into the community from other places to use public facilities, specifically the pool, was also raised. This led to floating the idea of potentially needing to create a restrictive community-wide ‘bubble” like in Atlantic Canada.
Councillor Leo Malette supported the cancellation of the parade, noting “we’d probably get people from out of town and we don’t know where they are from.”
Malette said he isn’t opposed to tourists “but we our own bubble” and questioned whether they should look at restricting visitors from other communities using the public pool.
Councillor Denis Senecal agreed with canceling the parade and Malette’s point regarding outsiders.
“We should look hard at pool use by outsiders,” Senecal said.
Councillor Lise Senecal echoed the sentiments about the parade but suggested they should think further about restricting access for outsiders that use West Nipissing facilities. She noted, for example, that Verner residents are depending on arena facilities in Warren and North Bay until their arena opens.
“It’s sad,” she said about the parade, “but as for the pool” and restricting access, “we would have to apply it to everyone at this point of time.”
Councillor Chris Fisher, who was chairing the community services portion of the meeting, said the issue about a potential West Nipissing ‘bubble” can be discussed at a later date if necessary.
Fisher said the Atlantic Canada regional bubble was controversial and had problems at first, but showed some success.
“It’s not a terrible idea if the pandemic gets out of control and we need to shut down West Nipissing,” he said, adding it can be revisited then.
Lise Senecal said it’s probably not possible “and I don’t think we can do that … although I wish we could close the south from Northern Ontario,” concluding that it’s not necessary at this time.
“Right now, West Nipissing and North Bay are doing good,” she said, gesturing to knock on wood to avoid jinxing that situation. Senecal then jokingly reached for the head of Jay Barbeau, chief administrative officer, who was appearing the Zoom box below her.
It was one of the lighter moments of the meeting for a council that has been divided on many issues for several months.
