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The Cavalcade of Lights a city-wide program of holiday lighting, tours and special events kicked off its 40th year last week, without Scarborough.

Scarborough has four of the city's 65 Business Improvement Areas, but none of the local merchant groups will be taking part in the Calvacade this year. The 20 BIAs across Toronto that are lighting up their neighbourhoods are doing so without financial support from City Hall.

"It's actually quite expensive to do," Ward 37 (Scarborough Centre) Councillor Michael Thompson said of the cost to BIA's to take part in the Cavalcade.

He added that the Wexford Heights BIA, which he helped found in the Warden and Lawrence avenues area, is focused on its annual Taste of Lawrence street festival but hopes soon to have a park off Lawrence that would provide space for holiday lights and a Christmas tree.

The Kennedy Road BIA has been part of the Cavalcade of Lights before but that cost the merchants around $60,000 and this year they decided not to take part, said the group's treasurer and vice president Eddy Jagan.

"It's a very costly thing for us and we didn't want to spend that kind of money," he said, adding the latest lighting and decorations for Kennedy south of Hwy. 401 are not as elaborate.

Jagan said the Kennedy BIA was featured in a 2005 Cavalcade booklet and participated from 2005 through 2007, though staff of the city's culture and tourism department seemed to have no record of that.

Even Ward 40 (Scarborough-Agincourt) Councillor Norm Kelly and Thompson, who are BIA board members, seemed unaware of it this week.

Kelly, however, said Kennedy Road merchants had decorations and the area is "beautifully lit."�As Scarborough's BIAs mature they could work toward mounting bigger lighting displays, Kelly added.

Cavalcade is actually run by TABIA, a Toronto BIA association whose executive director was not available for comment Tuesday on when Kennedy Road was part of the program.

The Wexford Heights BIA has holiday decorations but no lights.

Holiday lights are being considered as part of a landscaping study, BIA chairperson Husein Ayoub said this week.