Vancouver’s Park Board is voting Monday night on whether to ban balloons from the city’s green spaces.
The commissioner spearheading the change points to the number of birds and other animals that are killed every year by discarded balloons, along with other environmental concerns.
Stuart Mackinnon told CKNW “they end up in landfills or at the centre of our streets. Right now in the corner of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans are huge patches of decomposing plastic that takes hundreds sometimes thousands of years to decompose, causing a huge problem for us environmentally.”
WATCH: Clowns planning protest of proposed balloon ban in Vancouver parks.
But critics, including several children’s entertainers, say community events would be impacted and businesses will lose money if the restriction is put in place.
They say proper education is the right path forward.
WATCH: Park Board considers balloon ban
A protest, featuring Dilly the Clown, will be held in John Hendry Park at 11 a.m.
If the motion is passed, Mackinnon said he’d like to see signs in parks and community centres to warn people.
~With files from Emily Lazatin