City of Prince George staff contends they provided the Elks May Day Parade organizers with the maps and permits required.
The parade was canceled when Elks Lodge 122 organizers felt they could not mount an adequate event, since they were unable to promise participants that they had the legal go-ahead.
A number of construction projects affected the final parade route, said city officials, and although dialogue was ongoing with Elks organizers, the revised maps and definitive permit were indeed not provided until mere days before the event was scheduled to take place.
"On April 4, the event organizer for the Elks' May Day Parade contacted engineering services staff and met with them later that day to discuss the parade and permit process. The parade was tentatively scheduled for Saturday, May 18, 2019," city spokesperson Michael Kellett said. "The last Elks' parade was held in 2017 and the route used that year could not be used again because of the closure of Seventh Avenue/George Street due to construction of the new parkade and downtown residences. Because of this, staff offered to prepare a Traffic Management Plan (TMP) with a designated parade route. This TMP would include a conceptual outline of the parade route, including an identification of where barricades and signage would be installed. This would reduce the need for volunteers and flaggers to control traffic on the day of the parade and increase the safety of participants, attendees and motorists."
According to the city, the following week, the Elks officially submitted a parade permit application.
"Given the recent permanent closure of some downtown streets, city staff used the Elks application to develop a new parade route template for all parades to be held downtown. The route outline was provided to the Elks the week of April 15-18. This outline was subsequently revised to accommodate transit buses and maintain access to the Four Seasons Pool and Civic Centre. The event organizer was kept up to date throughout the process. The final route and TMP were provided to the Elks on May 14 and the permit was provided the following day."
By that point, said Elks communications at the time, they had an inadequate number of confirmed participants. For many businesses, not-for-profit groups, agencies, bands and other groups, it takes more than three days to prepare a float or assemble their people.
"A few parades are held downtown each year and staff are currently in the process of working with the Pride Parade event organizers, and plan to have further meetings with the Elks and Legion regarding their future parade events," said Kellett.
