One of the city’s largest single day celebrations has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The annual Celebrate Canada festivities at Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park to celebrate Canada Day, along with Canada Day celebrations around the country, have been cancelled.
The Prince George event has been organized by the Multicultural Heritage Society (MHS) in Prince George for the past 45 years. The festival is a community event which involves hundreds of people and organizations. It takes months of planning in order to stage such a large birthday party, says Marlies Greulich of the Multicultural Heritage Society.
Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault has announced that this year’s Canada Day Festivities will not be celebrated as usual, in light of the current and ongoing COVID -19 pandemic in Canada.
Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer and Dr. Bonnie Henry, provincial health officer have both reminded us that large scale public events will not be held. Everyone must comply with the social distancing requirements until further notice to control the spread of COVID-19.
The Board of Directors of MHS have been monitoring the pandemic situation closely for
the past two months. Our timeline does not allow us to hesitate any longer and we regret to
inform our funders, supporters, entertainers, community groups, concessions, volunteers
and our potential audiences that
the 2020 ”Celebrate Canada” Festival in the Park has been cancelled
This year is Canada’s 153 birthday. The last time Canada Day festivities were cancelled
was in 1976 due to cuts in Government spending.