'CONFIDENTIAL UPDATE': Emails show city staff urging secrecy on fireworks plan ahead of surprise launch

An unannounced fireworks display in Ottawa on July 9. Photo by Submitted

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A week before the unannounced launch of unexploded Canada Day fireworks, members of the City of Ottawa’s special events team received a “CONFIDENTIAL UPDATE” on plans for the live shells then lying dormant on Lemieux Island.

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Documents obtained by the Ottawa Citizen under the Access to Information Act show city staff discussing a plan for the unused fireworks in emails dating back to July 3, less than two days after the Canada Day show was cancelled due to severe thunderstorms and about a week before the date of the rescheduled display at the start of Bluesfest.

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“This information is being shared to those who need-to-know only and is not to be shared externally or within your service unless operationally necessary,” reads a bolded sentence in a July 3 email from Barbara Stacey, a program manager with the City of Ottawa’s event coordination office.

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Stacey’s email, which was flagged “NOT FOR PUBLIC RELEASE,” walked members of the city’s Special Events Advisory Team (SEAT) through the decision by Canadian Heritage, in consultation with Bluesfest organizers, to discharge the fireworks on July 9 following the opening night performance at the music festival.

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Because the federal department and its fireworks contractor were left with “live fireworks,” options were limited, Stacey said.

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The fireworks contractor could either disarm each individual shell, an “extremely dangerous” process that would have involved manually reaching into the shells, or it could discharge the fireworks and remediate the site as normal.

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The latter option was deemed “less dangerous,” Stacey said, but did require all parties to consider the “potential impacts of the full spectacle of the fireworks display.”

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“This will be done without publicity or promotion to the public,” Stacey wrote. “This allows for the fireworks to be discharged in the safest way possible with the added benefit of Bluesfest’s existing closures and deployments to support any potential impacts to the public.”

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If there had been thunderstorms on July 9, documents show officials planned to set the unused fireworks off the following night instead.

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Ultimately, Canadian Heritage opted to launch the fireworks shortly before 11 p.m. Thursday, July 9, putting on a show that lasted about 11 minutes, startled many residents, prompted 46 bylaw complaints and drew condemnation from several city councillors.

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“It seems that Heritage Canada determined that it was safer to do this than try to remove the unexploded shells from Lemieux Island,” Somerset Coun. Ariel Troster wrote in a social media post at the time.

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“But on a weeknight, so late, with no notice = unacceptable.”

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