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Canada Day will take place without parade

Canada Day in Thunder Bay will be minus one of its premier events this year. On Tuesday city officials confirmed the popular Water Street parade has been cancelled for this year while construction consumes Marina Park.
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FILE -- A Canada Day parade participant celebrates the country's birthday in this tbnewswatch.com file photograph. (tbnewswatch.com photo)
Canada Day in Thunder Bay will be minus one of its premier events this year.

On Tuesday city officials confirmed the popular Water Street parade has been cancelled for this year while construction consumes Marina Park. Doug Henry, supervisor of events and festivals for the city, said the closure of the Pearl Street entrance to the park made the parade a logistic nightmare for 2010.

"The parade, because we’re now doing programming on Water Street, we felt it was a little too congested. It’s (also) very difficult to get into the park. We’d have to go over the overpass with floats and so on.

"Losing the Pearl Street access, we decided to postpone the parade and reassess it once the construction is complete."

The city briefly considered a revamped route, but in the end decided scrapping it for a year made the most sense.

"We had considered that, but really we like to centralize those activities and we thought it was best to not have it this year and then reassess and look forward in future years. (But) we’ll still have tremendous entertainment, lots of activities, food, and a great fireworks display. It’s going to be a great Canada Day."

Henry said he’s sure some people will be disappointed in the temporary shelving of the parade, which is the kick-off to an evening of activities at Marina Park, but it simply means Canada Day will have slightly different flavour as the country turns 143 on July 1.

"What we’re going to do is we’re going to use the main festival site, which is ideally set up for concerts and musical performances, so that will be full of activity. But we’re also expanding onto Water Street and the Pagoda Street parking lot. We’ll have concessions and Artisan’s Alley and all kinds of activities right on Water Street."

Henry said he doesn’t expect the loss of the parade to have any affect on attendance figures for Canada Day, which will still culminate with the traditional fireworks display at the park.

"We would anticipate large, large crowds to again visit Marina Park for Canada Day."

Patti Bates, a long-time supporter of Friends of Marina Park, who oppose the current waterfront development plan, in particular the hotel and condominium portion central to the plan, said she thinks the city is making the best of a bad situation for Canada Day.

She said she’s glad the majority of events will remain in the park.

"The shuttle bus will help," she said. "Marina Park is our gathering place and (city) administration knows (it) would feel the ire of city residents if things were moved from there this summer – keeping in mind it is an election year."

Bates added she’s concerned for the long-term future of the park and access to events like Summer in the Park and the Thunder Bay Blues Festival.

The Downtown Heart of the Harbour Business Improvement Association was contacted for this story, but did not immediately return an interview request.




Leith Dunick

About the Author: Leith Dunick

A proud Nova Scotian who has called Thunder Bay home since 2002, Leith is Dougall Media's director of news, but still likes to tell your stories too. Wants his Expos back and to see Neil Young at least one more time. Twitter: @LeithDunick
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