First, Rock on the River was cancelled. And now, the other big event in Timmins every summer – the Great Canadian Kayak Challenge and Festival – has been beached for this year. And like everything else being sidelined, it’s because of COVID-19.
City of Timmins CAO Dave Landers says the festival only happens every year because of the
“Knowing what the business community is going through,” he says, “it just wasn’t practical to try to move it forward and hope that the business community could contribute the way that they had in the past.”
There’s uncertainty over whether large crowds will be safe or even allowed by the end of August. Landers says an abundance of caution was used in the decision to cancel the event.
“From a business point of view practically thinking, it doesn’t make sense. But on the other side of it, planning for an event that might very well not go forward is just not solid thinking right now.”
Landers says planning for the 2021 kayak festival will begin earlier than most years, “for a bigger, more comprehensive event.”
