Future of Barrhaven's Canada Day celebrations unclear after organizers step down

Future of Barrhaven's Canada Day celebrations unclear after organizers step down

Longtime president hopeful that someone else will take over

The organizers of the annual Canada Day celebrations in Barrhaven say they're stepping back from the 44-year-old event but still hope someone can fill their shoes next year.

In a statement on its website, Canada Day Barrhaven announced the non-profit will not be organizing any celebrations in 2027.

"Our lungs can't hold the capacity they did before," said Darrell Bartraw, the group's president for the last 16 years.

"Basically we are absolutely tired and [have] no new young blood coming in — at least none that are willing to step up and run the whole event," Bartraw told CBC. "That takes a person that's got an absolute lot of time on their their plate."

According to the statement, Canada Day Barrhaven had tried for years to recruit new volunteers and leaders but couldn't find anyone with the capacity to organize and operate the event.

But since putting out that statement, Bartraw said he'd heard from a number of people interested in taking the reins.

"I'm going to meet with all these people and ... I am 100 per cent sure there will be a Canada Day in Barrhaven next year," he said.

The celebration partially went ahead this year, though the fireworks were cancelled due to torrential Canada Day rainstorms that drenched the Ottawa area.

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Bartraw said the event was almost cancelled outright due to financial difficulties more than two months ago, when its midway provider pulled out.

"Because of the drastic increase on the price of diesel, they chose not to drive from southern Ontario to do our event and then drive back to southern Ontario," Bartraw said.

That left organizers with a $18,000 hole, but Bartraw said he was ultimately able to fill it after reaching out to another charity.

"If they had not have done that, we actually would have cancelled the event this year," he said.

Nathan Fung is a reporter with CBC Ottawa, with a strong interest in covering municipal issues. He has previously worked as a reporter in Hamilton and Edmonton. You can reach him at nathan.fung@cbc.ca