45 Friends of Centennial Square held a protest at the namesake fountain right before a city council session in Victoria, calling upon council members to roll back controversial plans to replace it with a splash park.

Councillor Dave Thompson attended the rally. Although he did not make his stance known, his mere presence suggests his views are aligned with that of the advocacy group.

The attendance was mostly elderly, and the crowd’s primary motivation was to preserve the fountain’s historical character. This stance is widespread throughout the city’s electorate, and many advocates have voiced their opposition on this basis since the plan was announced last year.

It was also suggested that the secret rationale behind this controversial move was to take advantage of a provision of an upcoming provincial bill limiting drug use around—you guessed it—splash parks, thus forcing the displacement of homeless people from the area. The bill in question is the object of an injunction by the BC Supreme Court on the grounds that it likely constituted an Article 7 Charter violation in the midst of a never-ending toxic drug crisis.

Ken Johnson, former president of the Hallmark Heritage Society, would then speak before the council, spending his allotted three minutes illustrating how the city’s plan diverged from the original plan for the square’s modernisation as drafted in 2018, and urging the council to roll back those changes.

The city of Victoria has just announced the attribution of a contract to a design firm which is to have the first say on the fountain’s fate.