The organizers of a popular street festival in Mississauga say they have sent a bill to Metrolinx for thousands of dollars in costs after the provincial transportation agency failed to meet its own construction deadlines, which impacted their event.
The Cooksville Business Improvement Area (BIA) and Taste of Cooksville (TOC), in a news release, said Metrolinx’s ongoing LRT construction near Dundas Street East and Hurontario Avenue resulted in the loss of vendor spots at their festival and also forced them to reroute emergency lanes to ensure it could still run out without incident.
Organizers say despite “multiple assurances and firm commitments,” Metrolinx did not fulfill its commitment to complete its work in the area prior to the start of Taste of Cooksville, which ran from Sept. 20 to 21 along Dundas Street from Hurontario Street to Camilla Road.
Speaking with CP24 late Sunday afternoon at the event, Adil Abrahim, TOC’s treasurer of the board, said the festival aims to highlight the “flavours, best restaurants. and retailers” from the area.
“We’re happy to have such a great turnout despite the issues caused by the ongoing construction in the area with Metrolinx but despite all that we were able to organize a great festival for the people today,” he said.
Abrahim said the impact of the Metrolinx construction delay has been “pretty significant” resulting in organizers having to turn down a notable amount of space they’d foreseen for vendors. He added that the presence of construction equipment as well as fencing also proved to be a challenge for vendors, and last-minute solutions had to be found to appease them.
“It definitely had a financial impact on the festival and it definitely had an impact on the amount of vendors we were able to secure,” he said.
Abrahim went on to say that they have sent Metrolinx a “formalized invoice,” which amounts to “several thousands of dollars” to cover the cost of lost vendor fees and sponsorship issues, among other things.
Taste of Cooksville organizers, he added, are still waiting back to hear from the provincial transportation agency.
“I sincerely hope Metrolinx will take responsibility and reimburse the festival for this loss, which impacts not only the event but also the small businesses counting on it,” Mississauga Coun. Dipika Damerla, who is the founder of Taste of Cooksville, said in a release.
Metrolinx says it worked with shop owners to ‘mitigate issues’
In an email to CP24, Metrolinx said they “understand that construction can be challenging for local businesses and always work directly with shop owners through the process to ensure we mitigate issues whenever possible.”
“To support businesses during Hazel McCallion Line construction, Metrolinx works with local businesses to minimize disruptions and reduce the impacts through shop local initiatives, BIA support and procurement from local businesses,” the agency wrote.
Metrolinx added that leading up to the Taste of Cooksville Festival, its Community Engagement team worked closely with the Cooksville BIA to “ensure the area was ready for the event.”
“(We) provided festival signage, paused work, and safely secured the worksite, and held multiple meetings including a walkthrough with the BIA a week before the festival,” it said, thanking local businesses for their patience during construction.
“Metrolinx will continue to support local BIAs and businesses through the construction of the LRT, which will bring thousands of people into communities along Hurontario, providing significant positive benefits to local businesses.”
CP24 has asked the provincial transportation agency if it will be paying the bill it received from Taste of Cooksville or if it will be offering any other kind of financial compensation to the festival’s organizers.
‘Flavours over frustration’
Anna Mikus, the executive director of the Cooksville BIA, said this year they expanded Taste of Cooksville to a two-day event and it was a success, despite the challenges they faced.
“We call it flavours over frustration. Yes, we’ve had ongoing challenges at the four corners of Hurontario and Dundas with Metrolinx, but nothing that we couldn’t overcome,” she said, adding organizers believe the issues they encountered with Metrolinx may also have had an impact on sponsorships.
“We were worried a few ago whether we would be able to continue the festival, but we made it work.”
Mikus said after having conversations with Metrolinx, the agency made some “significant adjustments,” which they’re grateful for.
Nonetheless, she said festival organizers remained concerned as they wanted to continue supporting businesses from the area the best they could.
“We could have had a significant more presence from the Cooksville and Mississauga areas, but vendors and sponsors were worried. They were worried whether we could get this off the ground,” she said.
“Because we and the BIA did an excellent job pushing Metrolinx to ensure that they were able to clean up as much as possible so that we can continue to provide a fantastic festival, but it did cost us.”
