One of Toronto’s Canada Day fireworks displays has been canceled and another has been postponed after a vendor pulled out at the last minute.
According to the city, the vendor that provides the pyrotechnics for Ashbridges Bay Park, Stan Wadlow Park and Milliken Park told officials Thursday that it “did not intend to fulfill its contractual obligation to put on fireworks displays.”
“City staff worked day and night to secure new vendors who could put on fireworks at all three locations. Businesses in Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and in the US have been contacted,” the staff said in a news release issued Friday morning.
“The City was able to secure the services of a new vendor to allow the Ashbridges Bay fireworks display to continue tonight. The seller was also able to commit to a fireworks display on July 2 for Stan Wadlow Park.”
However, officials said the potential vendor for Miliken Park in Scarborough, located near Steeles Avenue and Middlefield Road, confirmed Friday morning that they did not have the resources for the event. Those fireworks have now been cancelled.
“They just dropped a contract that we had with them,” Toronto Mayor John Tory said at a news conference ahead of the Canada Day parade. “City staff scrambled. They literally talked to 20 different vendors.”
City officials said they have used the vendor, whom they identified as David Whysall International Fireworks Inc., multiple times, including for Victoria Day weekend. They say staff were in contact with the company on June 20 to confirm details of the Canada Day fireworks.
“Just so everyone knows, we will certainly hold this provider accountable for the costs and damages that the city actually ends up incurring as a result of this last minute notice that they are not going to meet their obligations,” the city said. spokesman Brad Ross told CP24 on Friday morning.
Fireworks at Ashbridges Bay Park, Mel Lastman Square and Downsview Park will continue as planned tonight at 10 p.m.
“We apologize to residents for some of these cancellations and rescheduling, but we hope that people can enjoy Canada Day weekend, certainly tonight in Ashbridge’s Bay and Mel Lastman’s Square,” Ross said, adding that the city ” compensate Scarborough residents in the near future.”
Ross said he hasn’t seen the fireworks shows planned for Friday night, but he’s hopeful it will be a great show.
The city also reminds residents that fireworks are allowed on private property without a permit until 11 p.m. on Canada Day, however they are not allowed to be set off in city parks, beaches, balconies or parking lots.
Tory, for her part, urged residents heading into the city to watch the fireworks displays to do so with respect, referencing the Victoria Day long weekend in which two people were shot, one person was stabbed, two others were robbed at gunpoint and seven police officers were injured after being hit by multiple fireworks.
“It was a very small group of people, really hooligans, on Victory Day that weekend that ruined it for everyone,” he said. “They had very reckless behavior, it could have resulted in someone being literally killed because they were shooting fireworks at each other and at the police officers and there’s just no excuse for that.”
“It’s just not the kind of behavior that we believe in in the city of Toronto.”