Mississauga wants to fully reopen Celebration Square, other facilities in coming weeks
Published October 25, 2021 at 4:00 pm
Now that capacity limits have been lifted on Mississauga restaurants, community centres, gyms, pools and other places where proof of COVID-19 vaccination is required, city officials want to do the same with Celebration Square and other cultural facilities in town.
That could mean, among other things, a return to full New Year’s Eve festivities at Celebration Square, which sat relatively silent last Dec. 31 due to the pandemic.
In an interview last week, Mayor Bonnie Crombie said she believes the annual celebration will take place this year, in some form.
Effective today, the Ontario government lifted capacity limits at restaurants, gyms, casinos and some other locations where proof of vaccination is needed. It will also allow other settings like personal care providers, museums and indoor attractions to implement proof of vaccination to increase capacity limits.
“This is a promising sign that we are heading in the right direction and getting life back to normal,” said Crombie. “I know that businesses have had an incredibly difficult 18 months with repeated closures and changing capacity limits. I am hopeful that this plan will provide much-needed relief and a light at the end of the tunnel, as well as allow many of our businesses to get back on their feet.”
Moving forward, the City of Mississauga is considering implementing a proof of vaccination requirement for cultural facilities in order to increase capacity limits at those places.
Videos
Officials say they’ll make a final decision in the next few weeks.
New Year’s Eve celebrations at the 290,000-sq.-ft. Celebration Square typically attract upwards of 30,000 people, but that number might be cut in half this year if festivities get a limited green light.
In past years, the Celebration Square event has been the city’s biggest New Year’s Eve party. In 2019, Juno Award-winning hip hop artist Jazz Cartier headlined the event.
Ice skating, food trucks and fireworks have also been regular attractions at past events, but this year’s attractions have not yet been finalized.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced the lifting of capacity limits on Friday as he unveiled plans for managing the pandemic long term.
The Province aims to remove all public health measures meant to slow the spread of COVID−19 by late next March, including mask mandates.
Proof−of−vaccination requirements will start to be lifted early next year—as long as trends don’t become concerning—starting with restaurants, bars, gyms and casinos in January.
As of today, masking indoors, social gathering limits, capacity limits and physical distancing in retail settings and unrestricted access to medical services remain unchanged.