Crosswalks will be white in the City of Moncton, after a vote by City Councillors was split down the middle.
A recommendation was made to continue with rainbow crosswalks this year, but with a tie vote, that caused the motion to fail.
Councillor Shawn Crossman wanted to see the colours on Moncton’s streets again this year, “We were the leader in the rainbow crosswalks of the past, but now we are the followers. I think that if Moncton wants to continue moving forward, we need to represent all nationalities, we need to represent all ethnic groups, we need to represent everybody. To not go forward with this has the city moving backwards.”
Crossman says he felt the hardest hit in yesterday’s decision was the River of Pride community, “The fact that this group came forward under the impression that City Council was going to move ahead with rainbow crosswalks, and that didn’t transpire.”
Meantime, Councillor Greg Turner says he voted not to paint the rainbow crosswalks, but that doesn’t mean he is against the cause. He says guidelines are set by the Transportation Association of Canada and the province of New Brunswick,” First the province wrote a letter demanding that we not do it. Then they came back a few weeks later and they said they didn’t mind if we did do it, but it was at our discretion, and they would not accept responsibility, because it does go against guidelines that the province does endorse.”
Turner says he has offered much support to the LGBTQ+ community, “Personally, I participated in the Pride parade last year, and had a great time. In fact, the Councillors, when we got the crosswalks near the Capitol Theatre, we stopped and took a picture because we were very proud of it. We are very proud of being an inclusive society here in Moncton.”
He has no doubt that once TAC completes their study, and if they give the province clearance, they will move ahead with rainbow crosswalks, “We will move forward very rapidly with it, because we really want it. For now, we are very concerned about the liability.”
Turner says there are other ways that the City of Moncton can show their support for the LGBTQ+ community, which may include flags on Main Street or rainbow colours on the Riverfront Trail.
