Rainbow colours will soon be visible as summer pride celebrations kick off, but one place you might not see them is in New Brunswick crosswalks.

The province’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure has told communities to stop painting rainbow crosswalks because they fall outside of the federal description of what a crosswalk is and the traditional white is safer. The white lines supposedly stand out more and are easier for drivers to see.

“We are going to be reverting back to white, for now,” said Isabelle LeBlanc, the city of Moncton’s corporate communications director. “We do know that the Transportation Association of Canada has put together a committee to study, because it is quite common across the country to paint crosswalks in rainbow colours.”

River of Pride, southeastern New Brunswick’s LGBTQ+ community organization, says not having rainbow crosswalks will not put an end to their celebrations, but Charles MacDougall says the LGBTQ+ community is working with municipalities to find other ways to show support.

“There's other places in municipalities that rainbows can go,” said MacDougall, a project coordinator with Greater Moncton River of Pride. “Maybe sidewalks, or parks, or entrances to town halls, or lampposts that can be decorated in rainbow colours.”

But with more and more requests to paint crosswalks with rainbow colours, the Transportation Association of Canada, or (TAC), has formed a project committee to review the practice. Until that review is complete, New Brunswick's Department of Transportation and Infrastructure is asking communities to follow the federal standards and guidelines.

MacDougall says the TAC will not be holding any public meetings about painted crosswalks and that there is no timeline for the end of their study. Until then, he hopes communities will continue using rainbow colours in crosswalks.

“It's not illegal, in fact, there's a municipality, Sussex, not too far from here that painted a rainbow crosswalk a couple of weeks ago,” said MacDougall.

New Brunswick Premier Brian Gallant supports continuing the practice, despite the advice of the provincial transportation officials. Gallant sent a tweet Monday afternoon encouraging municipalities to go against the recommendations of his own provincial department.

He said "municipalities are allowed to paint rainbow crosswalks - and they are encouraged to do so as an expression of pride and inclusiveness"

 

With files from CTV’s Jonathan MacInnis.