Santa Claus will be coming to Ottawa for a parade

OTTAWA -

Santa Claus will likely travel to Ottawa for a parade this holiday season after the Ontario government removed capacity limits for organized, large-scale outdoor events.

While it’s too late for smaller communities to roll out floats in a Santa Claus Parade, organizers with the capital's two largest parades have joined forces to light up city streets.

The Ottawa Professional Firefighters Association runs both the Help Santa Parade and Santa’s Parade of Lights. Both events draw huge crowds, up to 150,000 spectators, who line the streets to watch the brightly decorated floats pass by.

With capacity limits now removed, the parades can march forward but this year, they will be combined for a more scaled back celebration, expected to happen in early December.

"We hope to pull something together on short notice," says Bob Rainboth, chairman of Santa’s Parade of Lights. "We have a template in place and are prepared to provide to it to the city, with the new information, we plan on moving forward and are hoping to get into the community from the west to the east and not your traditional route."

Last month, the city would not grant permits for parades and so far, they have not yet approved this event, but health officials could reverse the decision.

“I think that with the change in the provincial regulations that we need to review what’s in the regulations and do it in the context of what our current COVID situation is in Ottawa,” says Dr. Brent Moloughney, Ottawa’s associate medical officer of health. “We need an opportunity to look at these, and discuss also with our enforcement colleagues in bylaw around parades and other sort of events. So I would say stay tuned, give us a chance to take a look at it, and we will get back to you on that.”

Rainboth says he is hopeful the appropriate permits will be approved and that when they are, the parade route will be released.

"When you see the kids eyes light up it will be fantastic," he says. "This year we’re going to try to make up a bit for the lack of community parades."

As well as ensure Santa has all the help he needs to ensure every child has a gift under the tree by collecting new, unwrapped toys and cash for Toy Mountain.