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WELLINGTON NORTH ‒ While council maintains there's a place for Pride in Wellington North, they don't believe a rainbow crosswalk is the safest or most cost-effective way to show it.
During a council meeting Monday afternoon, councillors unanimously approved staff recommendations to not proceed with the installation of a permanent rainbow crosswalk but were open to alternatives like painted murals or celebration flags hung on Main Street lights or municipal buildings.
The idea originated in March after a delegation by Rosie Krul asked for an inclusive crosswalk to show support for the local 2SLGBTQIA+ community.
“This colouring of the crosswalk to be an inclusive rainbow would signify not only to the queer community that they are welcomed and belong in our towns but also signify to the rest of Wellington North that discrimination and homophobia won’t be tolerated in our community," said Krul, in a previous interview.
Rainbow crosswalks, or inclusive crosswalks, are walkways painted in the colours of the Pride flag or transgender flag and often include colours representing other communities such as people of colour.
However, insurance and legal counsel to the City of Cornwall in 2021 said that the use of non-standard markings like a rainbow crosswalk is not recommended due to increased risk and liability.
“(A rainbow crosswalk) literally gets driven over and salted and scratched,” said Coun. Steve McCabe, during the meeting. “There has got to be another way to recognize any group whether it be this one or another than painting on a roadway.”
Referencing Cornwall's report on rainbow crosswalks from 2021, the primary concern shared was any form of artistic crosswalks is not approved for use by the Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) or Ministry of Transportation (MTO) as no comprehensive studies have been completed on the impact of non-standard crosswalk markings on public safety in Canada and any other publicly available research/studies are very limited.
“I believe as well that in our growth plan that we mentioned, we have a place for everyone," said Coun. Penny Renken, agreeing with McCabe. "So I don’t think it’s necessary to have a symbol for one part of our community.”
According to the report, municipalities that currently have these crosswalks typically have them placed in low-volume and low-speed locations.
However, the proposed future pedestrian crossovers, approved during the same meeting, are not considered appropriate locations due to their high traffic volumes.
Having reached out to the town of Minto, the home of Wellington County's first rainbow crosswalk, McCabe said their council sidled MTO approvals by painting a county road.
Plans for Pride in Wellington North will be discussed at a future meeting.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
