Launching The 2023 Canadian City Parks Report: A Spotlight on Solutions

Today, Park People launches the fifth annual Canadian City Parks Report: Surfacing Solutions: How Addressing Conflict and Reframing Challenges as Opportunities Can Create More Equitable and Sustainable Parks.

Over the past five years of the Canadian City Parks Report, our goal has always been to tell a story—the story of where city parks are going and where they need to go. 

This year, we took an even deeper approach to gathering these stories. We sat down for interviews with 44 senior parks staff across 30 municipalities, who generously shared with us the challenges they are facing, the projects and people inspiring them, and their vision for the future of city parks.

In the report, we weave together the themes we heard from those conversations with the data we gathered from our surveys of 35 municipalities and over 2000 residents of Canadian cities. 

Dive into our ten key insights on trends and challenges in city parks this year:

1. Plan for higher park use  –  Preparing for the new normal of a higher baseline of park use (click here)
2. Refocus on quality  –  Ensuring the parks we have are performing at their best (click here)
3. Explore new park typologies and funding arrangements  –  Identifying new types of parks for growing, urbanizing cities (click here)
4. Prioritize public education along with naturalization  –  Growing support for naturalization efforts through public education (click here)
5. Systematize climate resilience park improvements  –  Embedding climate resilience within park designs to safeguard the future (click here)
6. Deepen the focus on park equity  –Moving beyond amenity distribution to look at the social side of park equity (click here)
7. Adopt rights-based encampment strategies  –  Working with unhoused communities to find solutions with dignity (click here)
8. Experiment with flexible designs and policies to manage conflicting use  –  Addressing use conflicts so parks can work better for more people (click here)
9. Increase funding and support for community involvement  –  Supporting community involvement beyond one-time capital projects (click here)
10. Find the internal collaboration sweet spots  –  Leveraging departmental collaborations to achieve multiple overlapping goals (click here)

In the report, you’ll also find:

• A roundup of the latest park data from our surveys of city residents and municipalities across Canada
• A case study library featuring inspiring projects, people, and policies across Canada that offer tangible solutions to the most pressing challenges facing city parks
• A plans and programs library of municipal documents and community programs that address parks
• A downloadable summary PDF of our key findings and data 

Happy reading!