Cape Breton communities in the dark about Christmas parades

Several communities in Cape Breton Regional Municipality are wondering if they will still have a Christmas parade.

The concern comes after the municipalityinstituted a ban on nighttime parades.

Many of the groups are discussing stationary floats to keep the tradition at night. There could also be parades during the day.

Glace Bay switched from a daytime parade to a nighttime parade more than two decades ago. John Chant, chief of the Glace Bay Volunteer Fire Department, said it helped increase the number of floats because there were more people available to help.

"Hopefully, we don't revert back to how it was 25 years ago when comments were being made that there were more fire trucks than floats," said Chant.

Why night parades were preferred

Chant said nighttime parades allowed volunteer firefighters to organize parades while still having people available in case of emergency.

"You switch from a nighttime paradewhere you have a lot of volunteers to a daytime parade, which can greatly tax the resources of a volunteer fire department," Chant said.

Lloyd MacIntosh, chief of North Sydney Volunteer Fire Department, announced the cancellationof the North Sydney parade because there aren't enough volunteers to help out with the parade and respond to emergencies.

"Our first priority has to be fire protection," he said.

He said since he announced the cancellation on social media, other fire departments and members of the community have reached out and offered to help to make the North Sydney event happen.

'Community spirit' will keep parade going

MacIntosh said there will now be a discussion on keeping the parade.

"We'll have a meeting and we'll take it under serious discussion," he said.

Glace Bay, North Sydney and other areas are holding meetings to discuss the future of the Christmas parade in their communities.

"I know for a factthat just the community spirit itself is going to make this thing a go and I think this might grow to be something huge again," said Chant.