Launching The 2022 Canadian City Parks Report: It’s All About Relationships

“As people we have an individual and collective responsibility to be in a good relationship with the Earth, just as well as being in a good relationship with ourselves and each other.” – Carolynne Crawley in the 2022 Canadian City Parks Report

 

The unifying theme of the 2022 Canadian City Parks Report is relationships.

We know that in 2022 parks helped many people forge stronger relationships to nature and each other.

But persistent systemic inequities, social divisions, climate change, and mental health challenges demonstrate that our relationships to nature and each other are fractured and inequitably distributed.

This report showcases how parks are bringing people together across differences, helping us recognize and repair wrongs, and experience the joy that comes from, in Carolynne Crawley’s words, “being in a good relationship” with ourselves and each other and the Earth.

Through our research, interviews, and surveys with 30 participating cities and over 3,000 urban dwellers across Canada, we are pleased to share insights and lessons from the 2022 Canadian City Parks Report, demonstrating how parks can play a stronger role in building and healing relationships in our cities.

 

Park use and appreciation continues to grow

It is undeniable that people in cities are using parks more than ever. This strong uptick in park use is a trend that is likely to continue for some time.

• 55% of city residents said they spent more time in parks in the last year.
• 58% said that they would like to spend even more time in parks.
• The number of survey respondents who said parks benefited their mental health increased from 85% last year to 94% this year.
• Respondents reporting that parks benefited their physical health jumped from 81% last year to 91% this year. 

Riverdale Park in Toronto. Credit: Jake Tobin Garrett

 

Giving back to nature

Not only are people spending more time in green spaces, but more people are inspired to give back to the natural spaces that have given them so much. This isn’t surprising since research shows that people who spend quality time in nature tend to also exhibit more pro-environmental behaviours.

• 87% of city residents we surveyed said they feel connected to nature, while only 4% said they felt disconnected—a finding that was fairly stable across race and income.
• Individuals’ feeling of connection to nature seems to grow with age. While 83% of 18-29-year-olds said they feel connected to nature, 94% of respondents 65 and older report feeling this connection.
• 71% of respondents said that naturalized spaces within a 10-minute walk from home were most helpful in supporting their feelings of nature connectedness.
• 57% of the cities we surveyed said that they have, or are planning to, expand nature stewardship programs like plantings or invasive species pulls to meet growing demand from residents.

 

Ways Urban Canadians can Foster Stronger Nature Connections:

• Address barriers to accessing urban nature such as lack of time, inadequate access to nearby natural areas, and accessibility challenges.
• Prioritize investment in naturalized spaces in neighbourhood parks and provide ways to experience nature from home, free transit passes to larger parks, and the ability to call into an audio-guided outdoor nature walk.
• Promote reciprocity in nature programming and education by relaying both the benefits of nature connection for personal wellness and the ways we can give back through participating in stewardship activities, being mindful of our personal impact, or simply picking up trash along our favourite trail.

Read the stories in the Nature section to learn more.

 

Volunteers remove invasive English ivy in Stanley Park. Credit: Don Enright

 

Centring Indigenous leadership

Decolonization, Indigenous representation and leadership in city parks are a growing priority for cities and for residents.

• 68% of city residents we surveyed were in favour of more representation of Indigenous culture in park designs.
• 59% said they supported the renaming of parks.
• 87% said they wanted to see more Indigenous plants in parks.
• 76% of cities said that embedding a reconciliation/ decolonization lens in park planning and policy became a greater priority this year.
• 57% of cities said they had started or completed a process to rename parks to honour Indigenous histories and continued presence.

 

Enhancing relationships with Indigenous leaders and communities:

• Ensure Indigenous consultation is at the forefront of park improvement initiatives. Indigenous Peoples must be engaged as rights-holders, whose territories city parks are built on. This means learning Indigenous processes and cultures in the territory your city is in and employing them in park engagement practices.
• Returning to and conserving native plant species must be a priority. Just as Indigenous people have the right to live in cities built on our territories, Indigenous plants have the right to exist and thrive in urban environments. This work must be done in collaboration with Indigenous Peoples who hold knowledge about these plants and how they fit into a larger kinship network of species.

Read the stories in the Inclusion section to learn more.

 

Anna Huard (left) and Elder Barbara Nepinak (right) at the water node in the Indigenous Peoples Garden, 2021. Credit: Assiniboine Park Conservancy

 

Paying for parks

Park budgets were strained even before the pandemic. While park budgets remained stable this year, we’ve learned that parks are expected to do more “heavy lifting” without any additional resources. And, costs are going up.

• 86% of cities reported insufficient operating budgets and 97% cited aging infrastructure in parks as a challenge.
• 93% of cities said the pandemic delayed or raised the cost of park development projects, making park upgrades more expensive than before. This will be an ongoing issue.
• 87% of city residents said they wanted to see more public funding for parks, particularly for maintenance and higher quality park designs.

 

Building community relationships through funding:

• Embed equity within park investment by layering data such as demographics, historical investment patterns, and environmental measures like tree canopy coverage into park planning. This allows cities to prioritize investment in parks beyond just measures of development growth, which may leave communities that don’t see as much development behind over time.
• Consider more participatory funding options for public spaces, allowing community members to actively collaborate through participatory budgeting or flexible grants. Plan adequate staff time, however, for community engagement and internal discussions in order to move ahead with projects that may not fit within the city’s typical approach.

Read the stories in the Growth section to learn more.

 

Portraits set up by Hamilton Amateur Athletic Association Park in Basketball Court. Courtesy of the City of Hamilton. Credit: Jeff Tessier

 

Make engagement meaningful

The pandemic made in-person park engagement like town halls impossible, leading cities to experiment with creative engagement methods. While communities are keen to get involved, barriers to participation are inequitably distributed.

• 92% of cities reported that the pandemic changed how they engaged communities.
• Just 22% of city residents we surveyed said they felt they have the ability to influence what goes on in their local park.
• Only 44% of community park groups said they have a strong relationship with their municipality, and 83% said they’d be interested in deepening that relationship, highlighting that communities are eager to collaborate on shaping their parks.
• Survey respondents said the major barriers they face in influencing their local parks are: Not being sure how to get involved, lack of certainty about whether their participation makes a difference, and a lack of time to participate. These barriers were more prominent among respondents who identified as BIPOC, highlighting the need for deeper relationship-building with equity-deserving communities.

 

Deepening community relationships through park engagement:

• Take a proactive and neighbourhood-based approach to ongoing relationship-building with local groups to stay on the pulse of emerging needs and ensure there is a strong foundation of trust when formal engagement processes happen.
• Evaluate internal policies and practices to ensure there are protocols to meaningfully address barriers to participation, provide appropriate compensation to community partners, sustain relationships in the event of staff turnover, and formalize sharing back outcomes with engagement participants.

Read the stories in the Collaboration section to learn more.

 

Knowsy Fest, Edmonton. Credit: Daniel Chamberlain, New Tab Productions for InWithForward

 

Resetting the approach to houselessness

The visibility and rising challenge of houselessness in parks is top of mind for both cities and urban residents.

After a wave of violent and widely critiqued encampment evictions during the summer of 2021, community advocates have questioned the role of park departments in responding to houselessness.

Although there is still much work to be done, some cities are beginning to embrace a human rights-based approach to encampments by providing amenities and services in parks and deepening engagement with unhoused residents.

• 90% of cities listed houselessness in parks as a challenge this year, the same percentage as in 2021.
• Park staff reported feeling unequipped to deal with the challenge of houselessness, with 46% of cities citing a lack of knowledge about houselessness and 48% noting a lack of overall strategic direction beyond managing day-to-day issues as obstacles to this work.
• The main strategies cities reported using to address houselessness in parks were bylaw enforcement (76%) and designing parks with a crime prevention lens (66%) with approaches involving direct engagement with unhoused communities being far less common (10%).
• 62% of city residents who reported noticing encampment(s) in their local parks did not feel that it impacted their use of parks negatively. This shows there is an opportunity to reset this conversation towards more just and inclusive approaches that centre on building relationships, sharing space, and supporting the well-being of unhoused residents in parks.

 

Shifting relationships with unhoused communities:

• Invest in both the material and social well-being of unhoused communities by ensuring basic amenities and services are in place in parks, but also designing park programming that taps into people’s skills, interests, and creativity. Co-design programs with unhoused neighbours to ensure the activities will not result in displacement or discomfort.
• Approach encampments through a human-centred rather than the operational lens, leaning into the strengths of park professionals as connectors and convenors. Build relationships with unhoused residents and community partners, while fostering an organizational culture of openness, reflection and learning throughout the process.

Read the stories in the Activation section to learn more.

Distro Disco, a mobile “free store” that operates to provide essential supplies to residents of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Credit: Jackie Dives

 

Ready to dive into this year’s Canadian City Parks Report? Read all the stories here or head straight to the data from our national surveys of municipalities and city residents here.