Cold puts chill on New Year’s Eve party
Ottawa, Toronto among cities forced to scale back end-of-year celebrations
OTTAWA— Some New Year’s Eve plans across the country are being put on ice thanks to a long-lasting cold snap not expected to break until early next week.
What’s projected to be one of the coldest New Year’s Eves in Ottawa in nearly two decades saw organizers of the party on Parliament Hill announce Friday they’re scaling back the event, cancelling live music performances, but keeping a fireworks display and light show.
Heritage Minister Melanie Joly said while Canadians were able to manage all the snow that fell around last New Year’s Eve to ring in Canada 150, this year the cold was proving to be too much. According to Environ- ment Canada, the forecast for Sunday evening is -27 C.
“Of course it’s a bit of a disappointment with this extreme cold weather, but we have to deal with it, and making sure that Canadians are safe and everything is well taken care of in terms of public health, we decided to modify the celebrations,” Joly said in an interview.
Hip-hop artist Kardinal Offishall was among those scheduled to perform on Parliament Hill. News of the party’s cancellation prompted him to post his displeasure.
“Noooooooooo!!!,” read a message on his official Twitter account. “Damn you frigid temperatures!!!!”
Organizers of a New Year’s Eve party in Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square scaled back their plans, too, bumping the party ahead to just before midnight with a countdown and fireworks display. The event was previously scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. and include live music and dance.
Toronto officials say they will continue to monitor weather conditions ahead of the celebration and will make more adjustments if necessary.
In Montreal, a huge New Year’s Eve party to cap the city’s 375th-birthday celebrations will go ahead as planned, but organizers are expecting attendance to drop because of cold-weather warnings. The weather there is forecast to be -26 C.
In Quebec City, where it’s forecast to be -15 C, Andre Verreault of Action Promotion Grande Allée said residents are accustomed to the cold.
“We’re not cancelling anything,” Verreault said, noting 50,000 turned out in 2013 when it was -38 C.
Organizers on the Prairies scoffed a bit at the notion cold could derail their plans.
In Calgary, where temperatures are expected to hover at the -30 C mark on Sunday, celebrations will once again be held in and around the downtown Olympic Plaza.