Mayor Paul Jenkins made the announcement that all Town of Bancroft events through July will be cancelled, including Wheels, Water and Wings and their Canada Day celebration.
He says he has spoken with the BBIA and the Canada Day Committee. “They’re both in agreement,” Jenkins says on the decision to cancel the events. For some events – like Wheels, Water and Wings – he says there’s a possibility they could be rescheduled but it’s unlikely.
The topic was discussed during a meeting of council held via Zoom earlier this week. Councillor Valerie Miles said that she’s concerned about “mixed messaging” when it comes to Town-sponsored events. At the time a decision had yet to be announced regarding the cancellation of the events, but Miles mentioned how council needs to be consistent. “I’m just concerned about the mixed messaging and we respond to what’s acceptable to hold in public and what’s not,” she said, noting how the 2020 Farmers’ Market season had been cancelled earlier in the meeting.
During a 30 minute conversation with the MyBancroftNow.com newsroom that will air Friday morning, Jenkins mentioned how he recently was involved in a conversation with the Minister of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries Lisa MacLeod and the question of how to handle summer events was brought up. Àt that time, the city of Toronto had cancelled everything right up until the beginning of July,” Jenkins said. With the Town of Bancroft now cancelling all events through July, Jenkins said they are following Toronto’s lead.
“We don’t know when this is going to end,” Jenkins adds. While COVID-19’s rate of growth is decreasing, Jenkins points out that the cases are still going up. “In Canada, the cases were doubling every three days, now there’s doubling every ten days,” he says. Jenkins believes that’s giving people a “false sense of security.”
The full interview with Mayor of Bancroft Paul Jenkins will air Friday morning after the 9 AM news and repeat at 3:10 PM. It will also be posted to our Facebook page.
