After the embarrassing failure of the sound system during the Remembrance Day ceremony in Old Town, Niagara-on-the-Lake staff are pointing the finger at a contractor hired to provide the service.

“There’s been nothing but complaints for any of us who were there and, of course, the Legion is being blamed for all of it,” Coun. Gary Burroughs said at a council meeting on Nov. 21.

“I’m not trying to blame anybody but can we ensure it won’t happen again?”

Kevin Turcotte, the town’s manager of parks and recreation, told council the sound system was left to private contractor this year. The town said the vendor was Production Service Industries of St. Catharines.

“And unfortunately they dropped the ball,” Turcotte said.

The town had similar problems at last year’s Remembrance Day ceremony as well.

“We had some complaints last year about the sound quality and that’s something we did in-house,” said Turcotte.

The contractor will not be billing the town for the service and has offered to do a future event for the town free.

Al Howse, president of NOTL’s branch of the Royal Canadian Legion, wrote in a letter to the editor Nov. 22 that, to fix the ongoing sound issues, he was “taking that burden off the town.”

Coun. Wendy Cheropita said the town could alternatively work with the Shaw Festival to deliver high-quality sound on Remembrance Day.