More barricades, PSAs, security planned for 2019 Charlottetown Christmas Parade
Changes follow delays to parade start this year, as well as fatality during Yarmouth, N.S. parade
The City of Charlottetown plans to make changes to security and procedures for its annual Christmas Parade, following delays this year.
This year's parade was delayed about 35 minutes, because of issues with road closures.
"There was concerns with traffic disobeying road closures put in place," said Laurel Lea, the tourism officer for the city.
"We understand that people were driving around barricades that were being used to block east-west travel across University Avenue, which is the main route of the parade."
Additional security measures
Lea said city staff held a debriefing session this week, along with Charlottetown police, to discuss what could be improved for future years.
As a result, she says organizers plan to make several changes, including putting up more traffic barricades and putting out more public service announcements to make drivers aware of the road closures ahead of time.
Any time that a tragedy occurs, it does give everyone an opportunity just to double check what you're doing.- Laurel Lea
The city is also looking at extra safety measures along the parade route, such as having volunteers stationed at busy spots to remind people to keep back from passing floats.
"We know that kids get very excited when Santa is on his way, and the floats are very engaging, so they do creep onto that roadway as the parade does progress," Lea said.
"So, a friendly reminder every now and then in those areas where the crowd is larger never hurts."
No change to route
Lea said there was some discussion about the possibility of changing the parade route itself — but ultimately the decision was made to continue holding the parade along University Avenue.
"What police have identified that we need to remember is that the Charlottetown Christmas Parade is a nighttime parade, so it's done in the dark," Lea said.
"It works better if we have straightaways, if you don't have a lot of twisting streets where the crowd gathers on the corner, and floats are trying to get around those corners."
Lessons from tragedy
While the planned changes stem in part from this year's parade delay, Lea said equally as important was the death of a child attending the Santa Claus Parade in Yarmouth, N.S. this year.
"Any time that a tragedy occurs, it does give everyone an opportunity just to double check what you're doing, and to ensure that there's nothing that you could be doing better to ensure that public safety is really at the forefront," Lea said.
While she doesn't foresee any specific changes to Charlottetown's other large parade — the Gold Cup Parade — she said all lessons learned about public safety are transferable to any city events.