Canada Day fireworks cancelled at Toronto park after vendor pulls out last minute
One of Toronto’s Canada Day fireworks displays has been cancelled and another has been postponed after a vendor pulled out at the last minute.
According to the city, the vendor providing the pyrotechnics for Ashbridges Bay Park, Stan Wadlow Park and Milliken Park informed officials on Thursday they “did not intend to fulfill its contractual obligation to perform fireworks displays.”’
“City staff worked throughout the day and into the night to secure new vendors that could perform fireworks at the three locations. Companies across Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and in the U.S. were contacted,” staff said in a news release issued Friday morning.
“The City was able to secure the services of a new vendor to allow the Ashbridges Bay fireworks display to continue this evening. The vendor was also able to commit to a fireworks display on July 2 for Stan Wadlow Park.”
However, officials said the potential vendor for Miliken Park in Scarborough, located near Steeles Avenue and Middlefield Road, confirmed Friday morning they didn’t have the resources for the event. Those fireworks have now been cancelled.
“They just walked away from a contract we had with them,” Toronto Mayor John Tory said at a news conference ahead of the Canada Day parade. “City staff scrambled. They literally spoke with 20 different vendors.”
City officials said they have used the vendor, who they identified as David Whysall International Fireworks Inc., multiple times, including for the Victoria Day weekend. They say that staff were in contact with the company as recently as June 20 to confirm details for the Canada Day fireworks.
“We will, just so everybody knows, certainly hold this vendor responsible for any costs and damages that the city actually ends up incurring as a result of this very last minute notification that they’re not going to live up to their obligations,” city spokesperson Brad Ross told CP24 Friday morning.
Fireworks at Ashbridges Bay Park, Mel Lastman Square and Downsview Park will continue as planned tonight at 10 p.m.
“We do apologize to residents for some of these cancellations and rescheduling, but we’re hopeful that people will be able to enjoy Canada Day weekend, certainly tonight at Ashbridge’s Bay and Mel Lastman’s Square,” Ross said while adding that the city will “make it up to the residents of Scarborough in the near future.”
Ross said he hasn’t seen the fireworks displays planned for Friday night but he remains hopeful it will be a great show.
The city is also reminding residents that fireworks are allowed on private property without a permit until 11 p.m on Canada Day, however they are not allowed to be set off in city parks, beaches, balconies or parking lots.
Tory, for his part, urged residents heading out into the city to watch the firework displays to do so respectfully—making reference to the Victoria Day long weekend in which two people were shot, one person was stabbed, two others were robbed at gunpoint and seven police officers were injured after being struck by multiple fireworks.
“It was a very small group of people, you know hooligans really, on Victoria Day that weekend that ruined it for everyone,” he said. “They engaged in very reckless behaviour, it could have resulted in somebody literally dying because they were shooting fireworks at each other and police officers and there’s just no excuse for that.”
"It's just not the kind of behaviour that we believe in in the City of Toronto."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
NEW Is there a cost to convenience? Canada approves new cancer immunotherapy treatment
A new cancer treatment recently approved in Canada promises to cut treatment time down to just minutes, but experts have differing opinions on whether it's what's best for patients.
Air Canada walks back new seat selection policy change after backlash
Air Canada has paused a new seat selection fee for travellers booked on the lowest fares just days after implementing it.
Canada's new dental program offering hope of free care to millions but many dentists aren't signed up
A new Canadian dental care program is offering the hope of free care to millions, but while 1.7 million people have signed up for the plan, only about 5,000 dentists have done the same.
Province boots mayor and council in small northern Ont. town out of office
An ongoing municipal strike, court battles and revolt by half of council has prompted the province to oust the mayor and council in Black River-Matheson.
King Charles III returns to public duties with a trip to a cancer charity
King Charles III will return to public duties on Tuesday when he visits a cancer treatment charity, beginning his carefully managed comeback after the monarch’s own cancer diagnosis sidelined him for three months.
NDP says Ottawa's new grocery task force isn't living up to government promises
The federal government says the task force it created to monitor and investigate grocery retailers' practices has not conducted any probes and doesn't have a mandate to take enforcement action.
A group of Toronto tenants have been on a rent strike for a year and say there's no resolution in sight
Dozens of tenants in Toronto's Thorncliffe Park area have now been withholding their rent for one year, and it’s unclear when the dispute will end.
U.K. police arrest man wielding a sword in east London, 5 people are taken to the hospital
A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and two police officers on Tuesday in the east London community of Hainault before being arrested, police said.
Archeologists search for remnants of Halifax's 250-year-old wall that surrounded the city
Archeologist Jonathan Fowler is using ground-penetrating radar to search for historic evidence of the massive wall that surrounded Halifax more than 250 years ago.