Wallaceburg residents looking to celebrate Canada Day will have to make alternative plans.
The 2019 Wallaceburg Canada Day has been cancelled by the event's organizer. On June 20, Summit Shows Canada posted a message to their Facebook page, informing people of the cancellation. The post cited "a number of circumstances, beyond the control of the organizers" for the cause of the cancellation.
"This decision was made with great difficulty, but given the situation, we felt it was the right move,” said Chris Glassford, this year’s organizer.
The festivities had been slated to take place at Kinsmen Park in Wallaceburg on July 1. However, according to Ward 5 councillor Aaron Hall, organizers had several hurdles they were trying to overcome, including raising funds, especially when it came to the $10,000 price tag for fireworks.
"Anytime you're putting on a free event for the community, it's not free to put it on," said Hall. "There's definitely funds involved especially when you start talking about fireworks, it's not cheap to put on an event like that. Unfortunately, it just didn't quite get over the hump to raise the funds that were necessary."
Hall said he was doing his best to lend a hand to the event's organizer and to try and lighten some of the financial burdens. The organizer was denied their application to get funding from the municipality's Community Partnership Grant because of their for-profit status. They had since partnered with Moose Lodge Wallaceburg, a charitable organization, in hopes of reversing the funding decision. Hall was planning to introduce a motion during Monday night's council meeting that would allow to the Moose Lodge to receive $5,000 from the grant funding to go towards the cost of a fireworks display for the event, but has since told Blackburn News he plans to pull his motion from the table in the wake of the cancellation.
"My hope was to give the funds to the not-for-profit groups but with the event already announced being cancelled, it's kind of a moot point at this time," he said.
Prior to the cancellation, Glassford held a number of fundraising initiatives for the event, created a GoFundMe page, and received some support from local businesses. According to Glassford, any money that was raised will be donated to the Municipality of Chatham-Kent to be held in trust for the future use of Canada Day events in Wallaceburg.
Hall said he's disappointed to see the event cancelled but he's optimistic that the residents of Wallaceburg will work together to create a plan for the celebrations in 2020. He added that he'd like to look at the possibility of forming a committee for overseeing next year's event.
Both Hall and Glassford are encouraging Wallaceburg residents to support other Canada Day events taking place across Chatham-Kent this weekend. Overall, Hall said he's hopeful people will be able to enjoy their long weekend in other ways.
"You can still celebrate it and have time with your family on July 1st in Wallaceburg," said Hall. "It might not be as big of a community celebration but anytime you can spend time with your family and celebrate an occasion, hopefully, people can do that if they're not able to get out and about to other events taking place."