As Canadians say goodbye to 2017, Heritage Minister Melanie Joly is touting the year-long celebration of the country's 150th birthday as a great success.
While she acknowledges Canada 150 had its issues -- rain that soaked the Canada Day show on Parliament Hill and icy temperatures that have pre-emptively frozen out some New Year's Eve events -- Joly says Canadians can handle Mother Nature.
She says the real story of Canada's big birthday bash was the huge number of people who joined in, and the great memories created.
There were 5,800 Canada 150 events across the country, and Heritage Canada says 87 per cent of Canadians participated in at least one of them, with 31-million people overall.
Ottawa budgeted $576 million for Canada 150 events, as well as upgrading community ice rinks and public parks, and making national parks free for the year.