Our CBRM Council has said no to parades at night, 

not once but twice. 

And I want to point out something that was misleading and not cool in the document named PARADE SAFETY (the original document uses all-caps for its title and so I am, for fun.)

In PARADE SAFETY, written by CBRM staff for Council, it is stated that the Nova Scotia Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal's parade application states:"Parades should be held during daylight hours and under adequate visibility conditions."

But this is not the whole story: If we add a sentence to the above, as the Nova Scotia Event Guide (2018) in its section on parades, we get this: "9.4 Rules of Operation: Parades should be held during daylight hours and under adequate visibility conditions. Additional restrictions may be applied to parades held during non-daylight hours."

For clarity:

CBRM Staff says that the NS parade application says:" Parades should be held during daylight hours and under adequate visibility conditions."

The Nova Scotia Event Guide says: "9.4 Rules of Operation: Parades should be held during daylight hours and under adequate visibility conditions. Additional restrictions may be applied to parades held during non-daylight hours." 

Oh, so if your parade is at night, you may have to follow some additional rules. Isn't this exactly what Councillor Kendra Coombs was suggesting: "Dist. 11 Coun. Kendra Coombes said the CBRM could have reached out to the public and parade organizers to enhance safety and limit risks during nighttime parades."

(It is also worth noting that the Nova Scotia Government's typical conditions for a parade permit does not mention the darkness of night at all. )

So, CBRM staff is supposed to present useful information and relevant information to Council so that Council can make good decisions. If the information that Staff presents to Council is misleading and biased, the eventual decision is probably going to be influenced by this. 

Why is so important that CBRM staff gets it right when presenting to Council, and that Council does it homework so that they can question the information being presented to them? 

Because municipal government is not supposed to work like this. 

As people who live in the CBRM, we should be able to trust that the information being brought to our elected Council is useful, unbiased, and designed to bring a fair reading of the issue to Council, who are then responsible to make decisions. 

More on the dramatic fear of making decisions some Councillors should really work through next time. For now: