Briefly: North Vancouver district remains an outlier, as Hallowe’en pyrotechnics are outlawed in most Metro municipalities. A map, based on permits released via freedom of information, shows 2023 fireworks discharge locations. North of Edgemont and Lynn Valley are expected to be the hot spots again.
Bob Mackin
The Hallowe’en 2024 pyro show will go on across District of North Vancouver (DNV), after a majority of local politicians opposed a ban on amateur fireworks displays.
Last December, theBreaker.news reported that DNV sold 198 permits for home-based fireworks displays from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Oct. 31, 2023.
Anyone 19 years and up can pay $5 for a permit to light-off fireworks on private property in the district, subject to the landowner’s consent, during the four-hour window every Hallowe’en.
After an appeal to the Office of the information and Privacy Commissioner, the district hall freedom of information office released the list of discharge locations to theBreaker.news.
Applicants in 2023 declared a combined total of $51,000 fireworks purchased.
One display, on 1166 Handsworth Road, was worth $5,000. Five were $1,500 each (1376 Keith Road East, 1233 Tatlow Avenue, 1079 Lodge Road, 2792 Mt. Seymour Parkway and 2011 Blairview Avenue). Four others were $1,000 each.
The sale of permits raised less than $1,000 in revenue for district coffers. But the cost to taxpayers and the environment was far greater, according to Coun. Jim Hanson.
Hanson spearheaded the bid to ban fireworks sales and displays in DNV “due to the negative effects of fireworks on domestic and wild animals, to the environment and to people.”
A staff report cited air pollution, residential fires, risk of wildfires, and noise and injury to humans. Of 28 municipalities surveyed, only DNV and seven others still allowed consumer sale and discharge of fireworks. Amateur fireworks displays are also banned in City of North Vancouver, District of West Vancouver, City of Vancouver and City of Surrey, among others.
At the Jan. 22 council meeting, Mayor Mike Little and councillors Jordan Back, Herman Mah and Lisa Muri voted to defeat Hanson’s motion. Coun. Betty Forbes voted with Hanson. Coun. Catherine Pope was absent.
At the meeting, Little called fireworks a “community building piece” that brings neighbours together. He said his two dogs were more-frightened by doorknocking trick or treaters than area fireworks displays.
“Fireworks have become a uniquely cultural event on the West Coast,” Little said. “It’s something, at Hallowe’en time, that you don’t experience in other parts of Canada, anywhere near the same as you do experience here.”
Surrey toughened its existing bylaw on Oct. 7, increasing maximum fines to $50,000. Surrey allows professional displays for Hallowe’en and Diwali by individuals who have both federal certification and Surrey Fire Service permission.
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