While some people may look for buds on trees or the arrival or robins as the first sign of spring, another harbinger of warmer weather has popped up in Waterloo: fencing along Ezra Avenue. The fencing has been a familiar sight for people living in the area as St. Patrick’s Day approaches. This year, the actual holiday will fall on a Tuesday, but the City of Waterloo and the Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS) are preparing for the annual unsanctioned street party to happen this weekend. In past years, Ezra Avenue and Marshall Street have been the epicentre of the green clad chaos, with thousands of mostly inebriated students taking to the street. The fencing was first installed to create pathways to get in and out of the area, particularly for emergency responders. Community Safety Event declared The City of Waterloo declared a Community Safety Event on Wednesday. “We do not want the street party to happen,” Cari Van Niekerk, director of corporate communications for the City of Waterloo, told CTV on Thursday. “It’s a community safety concern. It is a drain on our resources.” Street parking will be banned in the university district from 12:01 a.m. until 11:59 p.m. on Saturday March 14 and on Tuesday March 17. “Declaring a community safety event gives us the ability to declare a street parking ban and give police and bylaw space to do their job if we’re anticipating a public safety risk,” Van Niekerk said. “There’s an entire district because we don’t want people arriving in cars and potentially causing a concern in that area. We do also encourage people to be aware of potential road closures that may happen in conjunction with that,” she added. The city also cautioned that its nuisance bylaw is still in effect. The bylaw states people cannot intentionally block sidewalks or roadways or remain on a street if police or bylaw officers have told them to leave. “Fines start from either $400 or $800 and a second offense starts at $800 to $1,200. It’s a significant amount,” Van Niekerk said. However, the city did not seek a injunction order this year, as they have in the past. “The City of Waterloo did not seek an injunction order for the 2026 St. Patrick’s Day period, based on the experience of the past several years where people have continued to gather in the street without consideration for consequences,” a news release said. “Officers continue to have the ability to lay charges, as demonstrated in previous years, without an injunction.” WRPS Chief Mark Crowell said the bylaw will allow officers to be more direct with people about the illegality of their actions if they attend the street party. “That will be another tool through education, and then enforcement, to minimize risk to the impacted neighbourhoods,” he said during an interview with CTV News on March 6. “We do want people to celebrate responsibly through a private setting or through a licenced establishment and there’s the balance of risk to our community that we always have to manage,” he said. In an email to CTV on Thursday, WRPS confirmed they are working with the schools to help get safety messages out ahead of the anticipated party. “WRPS officers have spoken with student unions from the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University, and Conestoga College, as well as students in the university district, and provided education about the City of Waterloo’s nuisance bylaw and what to expect if it’s disobeyed,” the email said. Police also confirmed there will be officers in the university district and Uptown Waterloo on St. Patrick’s Day and throughout the weekend leading up to it. What happened last year? According to WRPS, approximately 20,000 people gathered at the peak of last year’s party on Marshall Street, despite a court injunction that gave officers the power to arrest and criminally charge anyone who was deemed to be a nuisance. A report from police said the day began with small gatherings on private properties, before things escalated. “Shortly before 3 p.m., a large crowd was observed descending onto the roadway on Marshall Street in what appeared to be a planned, coordinated takeover of the street,” the report read. “Enforcement efforts by our members transitioned to crowd management and public safety efforts as officers were forced to close access to multiple streets to oncoming traffic.” Officers said they struggled to keep up as the party spread out, and they ran out of barriers to block off the affected roads. “We didn’t have enough [barriers] due to the size of the street stretching from Marshall and King all the way down to Weber Street. There were additional access and egress that we had to put cruisers at and staff with police officers which then decreased the number of resources that we had,” WRPS Superintendent Brenna Bonn said. How much did enforcement cost? When all was said and done, police said 254 charges were issued over the course of the weekend in 2025: A total of 17 arrests were made, compared to 10 in 2024. Police said the total cost of enforcement, including planning, logistics, salaries and overtime pay, came out to $308,800.
