While Canada Day is a time for residents to celebrate their country and proudly wear the maple leaf, there may not be any officially organized activities this year in Crescent Park.
Tourism Moose Jaw (TMJ) has handled the July 1 festivities since 2018 by finding community groups to provide activities for residents. Moreover, the organization has worked with the Kinsmen Club to host a fireworks display later that evening.
However, TMJ informed city council last November that — even though the 2022 event broke attendance records — it would no longer organize it. The main reason was the activity was not a tourist-related event and took up a large chunk of employees’ time.
Also, the organization only planned to temporarily co-ordinate things after the previous group disbanded in 2018.
The one activity the tourism-focused organization will continue to assist with is the fireworks display because that is cost-neutral.
Jacki L’Heureux-Mason, executive director of TMJ, confirmed that her organization would not co-ordinate this year’s festivities. She has contacted many community groups wondering if they would take on the project, but all have said no because they lack volunteers — similar to what TMJ faced over the years.
“As we’ve mentioned many times, we’d be happy to help people get it going if they want to,” she said.
The Canada Day Committee applied for and received $2,663 in event funding for this year in place of other organizations doing that because it takes time to acquire financial support, she continued. Tourism Moose Jaw will give that money — and offer other resources — to any group that takes on organizational duties. It cost less than $5,000 last year to host the event.
With a chuckle, L’Heureux-Mason said arranging Canada Day is easier than co-ordinating Sidewalk Days.
The Canada Day Committee reached out to every community group to see if they would set up a display to showcase their services — “Let people try things before they buy things, is how we always joked about it” — and looked for entertainment acts.
The TMJ executive director said that a minimum of 10 volunteers is needed to host a successful event. She noted that the committee and her staff became so overextended in organizing Canada Day that they became sick afterward.
“It’s a fairly extensive operation. It’s just with us doing Sidewalk Days, it’s just too much to ask of our very small staff and volunteer base both in a row,” L’Heureux-Mason added.
L’Heureux-Mason has lived in Moose Jaw for several decades and knows Canada Day activities have ebbed and flowed over the years. There were Canada Idol-type singing activities at the exhibition grounds for several years, while there were smaller events like concerts in Crescent Park.
After taking over organizational duties in 2018, Tourism Moose Jaw expanded the event and made it bigger in scope.
L’Heureux-Mason believes if there is a gap year with Canada Day, a group will likely pick it up. She noted that when Sidewalk Days was cancelled in 2011, a group of residents stepped up to co-ordinate the event.
She pointed out that Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 59 is hosting a “wonderful” street dance the evening of Canada Day, so there will be other small-scale activities on July 1.
“Where there is a hole, hopefully someone will fill it … ,” L’Heureux-Mason continued. “It hurts my heart. I’m a very patriotic Canadian. But I have to look at what this is doing to my staff.”
Any groups interested in taking on Canada Day can contact Jacki L’Heureux-Mason at 306-693-8097 for more information.
