Residents in London’s Argyle neighbourhood will have to go farther from home to get their fireworks fix this Canada Day, after the East London Optimist Club announced the cancellation of its planned celebrations at Argyle Arena due to policy changes recently enacted by the Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB).
For years, the club’s Canada Day fireworks display, which sees thousands of Londoners in attendance, has utilized the large football field of nearby Clarke Road Secondary School. But policy changes approved in September by school board trustees — namely that fireworks no longer be permitted on school property — is putting an end to that.
The changes, made to the school board’s policy dictating how the community can use TVDSB-owned buildings and grounds, arose from recommendations made by the school board’s insurer in early 2017, said Chris Yeo, the board’s manager of facility services.
The updated policy was posted for public input in March of last year, and was approved by trustees in September, Yeo said.
Former city councillor Bud Polhill, who sits on the board of the optimist club, told 980 CFPL they only became aware of the policy change earlier this year during a phone call with a school board official.
“When I called the school board… they said that fireworks would not be allowed on school property. I understood that meant you don’t want kids going over there and putting off fireworks,” he said, adding he was later told that the changes also applied to professional fireworks displays.
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Polhill said if they hadn’t learned of the change during the call, the club would have been much deeper into planning and fundraising. “We had our fireworks people booked, we had all that done.”
“It’s unfortunate we didn’t find out sooner, we maybe could have found something, but we had four or five months to try and find another venue and there just isn’t anything out there that would foot the bill.”
Yeo, however, said the board contacted the club in January 2018, eight months before the updated policy was approved, to give them a heads up, “knowing that this was a change that would have negative implications, or negative impact, on the community.”
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“Notification was communicated directly with the permit requester who would have submitted the permit year after year, typically, into our community use and facilities team.”
Asked about the discrepancy, Polhill told 980 CFPL that if someone at the optimist club had been notified of the change, that message wasn’t relayed to any of the other board members.
“If someone got a call from somebody on the phone and said ‘you can’t do this,’ it would have been much better if they had sent, to the board members, an email that said ‘you can’t do this.'” Pohill said. “We start planning this in September, October. Even if we didn’t find out until January, it’s a little late to try and change the venue.”
With the big event scrapped, Polhill said they may still hold some type of an event this year, but noted it won’t be Canada Day, and “may be just some kind of a get together in the park.”
“Next year we’ll hopefully have it at the new community centre in East Lions Park,” he said. “We hope we’ve got enough room there to do it.”
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