Mayor John Tory says it is “hard to tell” exactly how an ongoing labour dispute between Exhibition Place and locked-out technical and staging experts will impact attendance at the Canadian National Exhibition this year.
On Friday morning, pickets were heard chanting and shouting as officials, including Tory and Premier Doug Ford, spoke during the opening of the annual event.
Members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 58 have been locked out of Exhibition Place since late July.
“I hope that people, including the people in IATSE… I hope that they will all be committed to the success of the CNE,” Tory told reporters at the Taste of Manila event Saturday.
“You always hope that these things will result in a collective agreement before too long but we live in a country where people can exercise their rights to not sign a contract and not be working at a given point in time.”
Exhibition Place previously said a contingency plan was put in place to make sure the CNE operates normally this year but visitors must now walk through a picket line to get into the fair.
The president of the union previously said locked out staff were asked by Exhibition Place to suspend picketing until after the CNE, a request he says the union refused.
“I just hope everybody at some point gets back to the bargaining table and gets on with finding a resolution, which is what we all want but we also need a contract that is modern,” Tory added.
“Things have changed dramatically at Exhibition Place as they’ve changed everywhere else in the world and the contract hasn’t really changed with it so that it what they are trying to sort out and I wish them every success in doing that.”
The CNE runs from Aug. 17 to Sept. 3.
