Belleville residents will have a chance to set off a few fireworks to celebrate Victoria Day.
At its virtual meeting Monday, city council voted unanimously to allow the sale and use of fireworks, rejecting a staff report to outlaw it.
Councillor Paul Carr said they shouldn’t use a health emergency, the COVID-19 pandemic, to do non-health related actions, such as shutting down the fireworks celebrations.
Councillor Sean Kelly pointed to Mystical Distributing which has lost money because of festival cancellations around the province.
Fire Chief Mark MacDonald told council every year there are a few nuisance calls during the holiday weekend. “They don’t generally lead to fires, just hi-jinks. The issue was to make sure the messaging is in step with province, limiting the public gatherings to five people or less. To ensure the neighbours aren’t starting to meet in a central backyard with 10 or 12 houses joining in.”
Council agreed residents could set off the fireworks, but could not gather in large groups to do so.
