Further discussion about using the city's major arteries for the annual Canada Day parade hit the end of the road quickly at a virtual city hall meeting on Monday night.
A special meeting was called to see if city council was interested in reconsidering a motion - recently passed - that would see the annual Canada Day and Santa Claus parades use local streets only and avoid Ontario and Erie Street.
Huron Street is not an option due to construction.
As city clerk Tatiana Dafoe pointed out to council at the virtual meeting, a motion to reconsider would have to be put forth by two members of council who voted with the prevailing side, or voted yes, on the original vote.
Coun. Martin Ritsma put forth the motion and Coun. Brad Beatty seconded it.
A two-thirds majority of the whole of council, consisting of 11 including Mayor Dan Mathieson, would be required to move the item ahead, Dafoe noted.
With councillors Jo-Dee Burbach and Cody Sebben absent, and councillors Kathy Vassilakos and Danielle Ingram voting against, the motion did not move ahead. One more yes vote would have been enough to reach the two-thirds majority.
Contacted after the meeting, Kinsmen Club of Stratford members Bob Walters and Brad Rickert, co-chairs of the Canada Day parade, said the local Kinsmen will not affiliate themselves with a Canada Day parade this year in Stratford due to safety concerns.
"Brad and I were just talking about this," Walters told StratfordToday. "We will not be putting our (Kinsmen) name on the Canada Day Parade. We feel it is unsafe to run floats and big trucks down residential streets."
"As the actual operators of the parade, we know the logistics, it is not safe" added Rickert.
A management report from city staff presented to council before the original vote on May 24 noted previous setups for the Canada Day Parade on Huron Street (the traditional route) have been complex, required significant resources, and have raised safety concerns from staff.
In general, road closures for parades on connecting link roads (Ontario Street, Huron Street, and Erie Street) are more involved, because they include approval from the Ministry of Transportation (MTO), require significantly more resources to manage, and have increased public safety risks, the report states.
Walters said the local Kinsmen provided an alternate route to city staff that was never presented to council.
Historically, the Canada Day parade has set-up at Worsley Street, moving to St. Patrick’s Street, across Erie Street to Wellington Street and past city hall to Downie Street and then on to Ontario Street, moving to Huron Street then to Forman Avenue and to the SERC site.
Not using connecting link routes and instead using any of the remaining local and collector roads throughout the city is the simplest and most cost effective to manage, the management report states, with reduced requirements for traffic diversion and the least overall risk to public safety.
Walters and Rickert disagree: Using only local roads is the bigger safety concern, they said.
Walters said the club has made it's decision on the Canada Day parade and, after the city council outcome Monday night, doesn't see the need for further discussion.
Walters did not want to discuss the future of this year's Santa Claus parade because he is not the parade chairperson, but noted if council are not reconsidering further discussion on all 2022 parade routes, the future for that event is not looking good.
"We have made our stance, it is not safe and we are not changing that."
