West Vancouver cancels Canada Day celebration, Harmony Arts Festival

The District of West Vancouver announced on Wednesday that it is cancelling all summer programs, events, and rentals.

This includes two of the North Shore’s largest annual summer events, West Vancouver’s Canada Day celebration and the Harmony Arts Festival.

The Canada Day celebration was scheduled to take place on July 1, while the Harmony Arts Festival typically takes place during the first 10 days of August.

West Vancouver’s event cancellation will remain in effect until August 31, 2020.

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Mayor Mary-Ann Booth explains that resuming activities and larger celebrations too quickly could just extend the need for further cancellations and social distancing measures.

“While we can’t predict when it will be safe to re-open, we carefully studied the current available data before making this difficult decision,” writes Booth in a statement. “If we try to resume normal activities too soon, the length of this period of curtailed activities could be extended.” 

West Vancouver’s city council will also meet later this month to plan around the necessary finance adjustments that are needed due to the cancellations.