The Cape Breton Regional Municipality has debating whether it is safe to light up the night with a Christmas parade for seven years now. “There are a lot of people interested in this,” District 2 Councillor Earlene MacMullin said during a Committee of the Whole meeting on Tuesday. “This is something the residents want. This is something council would want to do.” “We all loved it, that’s the big thing right?” added CBRM District 10 Councillor Paul Nickituck. “It’s the lights. It’s everything going off. I mean, I know there has to be safety procedures.” In 2019, nighttime parades were banned in the municipality. Four years later, council reversed that decision but left police to make the call on each parade on a case-by-case basis. That policy has led to some confusion – including recently, when Glace Bay-area councillor Dave MacKeigan was in discussions with the local fire department about having a Santa parade after dark. “So, in consultation with Chief Chant of Glace Bay Fire, I said, ‘OK, my understanding is we are a go,’” said MacKeigan following Tuesday’s meeting. “And then we hear, ‘No, we can’t go because of public safety.’” Interim Chief Stephen MacKinnon, with the Cape Breton Regional Police, said safety is the number one concern, particularly following a 2018 tragedy at the Christmas parade in Yarmouth, N.S., that resulted in the death of a four-year-old girl. “We have even heard from some of the operators of the larger vehicles that they can’t see behind them,” Chief MacKinnon said. “Their vision is kind of obscured, all those types of things when they are rounding turns, these are concerns at nighttime.” The police chief added there have been close calls in the CBRM. “(In) 2019, we had a young boy that was run over, I think as a parade was going around a turn and back in 2024 there was a near-miss in Louisbourg where a young person kind of ran out in front of a float,” he said. MacKinnon said a happy medium might be to hold a stationary light-up at night. Others pointed out traditional parades after dark are still held in places like Halifax, northern Cape Breton, and Port Hawkesbury, N.S. “They want it back,” said MacKeigan. “They don’t understand why they can’t have it and, to be truthful with you, I don’t understand why we can’t have it.” For now, a motion was carried on Tuesday for police to bring back a report to council in November, in time to plan for December parades. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
