Niagara Falls mayor Jim Diodati joined us for his weekly update on the city.
Tourism
The Ontario government is investing more than $894,000 to support four festivals and events in Niagara Falls.
One of those events is the 101 Night of Twinkling Lights. Diodati says when he was young, it was a tradition for his family to get a box of Timbits, hot chocolate and drive through the 3-million lights.
“Now we have more money to keep the festival really sustainable,” said Diodati. “It’s nice to have money injected into some tourism initiatives like this that everybody enjoys, including the locals.”
He says people are beginning to cautiously come back to the city for tourism and that many of the hotels in the city are fully booked over the weekends.
“Any Canadians that want to cross the border for up to three days…[they’re] not going to need a test to get back into Canada as long as you’re fully vaccinated and have proof,” said Diodati. “We’re really grateful, it’s nice to see reuniting families.”
Omicron and Vaccines for Kids
Diodati says he is “cautiously optimistic’ when it comes to the new COVID-19 variant Omicron showing up in Canada. He is encouraging people to continue to follow the health guidelines already in place before Omicron was discovered.
“Our best defense is our offence, being protected and vaccinated,” said Diodati. “We’ll see what happens…we’re just trying to follow the protocols as best as we can.”
He says the city has vaccination clinics at the Canada One Outlet at Lundy’s Lane from Dec. 1 to Dec. 13 for kids.
Parking Tickets
There is a unique way of paying parking tickets in Niagara Falls. Anyone who received a ticket between Nov. 1 and Dec. 1 can pay with a toy instead.
“As long as it’s new, unwrapped and you have a receipt, you can pay all this week for any tickets from the last month,” said Diodati. “Rather than, let’s say, a $40 parking ticket, people will regularly pay significantly more because it’s money for a toy for kids. So, we’ll have people give $100 to $200 for a $40 ticket because they know it goes to kids during the holidays.”
