Closed to avoid large gatherings – City of Saskatoon and MVA eye re-opening Cranberry Flats

Before it was closed April 20, RCMP had been called out to popular recreational spot Cranberry Flats many times.

The calls, said City of Saskatoon’s GM of Community Services Lynne LaCroix – were complaints from local residents about groups of more than 10 people gathering at a time.

So, the City and the Meewasin Valley Authority (MVA) decided to take action.

“Meewasin was seeing at their rural parks…a real influx in unwanted behaviours and activities,” she told Council. “The RCMP…were getting a rise in calls for different kinds of activities; mostly young people with no university, no high schools, no bars to go to that they seemed to be amplifying the gatherings.”

To try to put a lid on that, the MVA and the City of Saskatoon closed the area to everyone.

Less than two weeks later, the City is planning on re-opening the area once again.

“We met with Meewasin…to lay out a plan, and we are targeting re-opening for May 4,” LaCroix explained. “In the immediate future what we want to do is just limit the hours of access to those rural parks to daytime hours.”

She explained it would be much like what the City does with Gabriel Dumont Park.

Times are still being finalized, but right now, the idea is to have the park gates open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

“That will be set up and put in place by Monday. I know Meewasin is anticipating having conversations with their board sometime this week also around their plan to move forward with re-opening some of their rural sites. So, we’ll get some additional signage made up, some hours of operation. We’re just securing the services we’ll require from the commissionaires who lock and unlock other gates for us at other parks.”

The information was released after an inquiry by Ward 5 Councillor Randy Donauer.