
A heartfelt thanks to all of the attendees, speakers, tour guides and sponsors who made Park People’s 2019 Heart of the Conference City Conference in Montreal the not-to-be-missed gathering for community leaders and park professionals from across Canada.
Parks define quality of life in our cities.
Attend the only National Conference focused exclusively on city parks across Canada.
Be among the cross-section of 200 people in attendance including park professionals and community leaders whose work focuses on leveraging the power of city parks.
Heart of the City is hosted by Park People, the organization that supports and mobilizes people to help them activate the power of parks to improve quality of life in cities across Canada.
Join us in Montreal June 12-14 2019.
Keynote Speakers
Rena Soutar

Rena Soutar is the first Reconciliation Planner at Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation. In this role, Soutar works with the Park Board, the City of Vancouver and First Nations communities to uphold the organizations’ commitment to the 11 Reconciliation strategies, as well as the Board’s endorsement of the mission to “decolonize the Park Board”. Soutar works cross-departmentally on projects such as park naming and monuments, memorials and public art processes and policies to ensure integration of Indigenous history, heritage values and memory practices. At the root of Soutar’s work is the belief that: “There’s no such thing as a culturally neutral space.”
Soutar’s role is to help the park board be “an evolvable organization in which every employee and commissioner recognizes the humanity in themselves by recognizing and respecting the humanity of First Peoples” and one that sets an example in treating reconciliation as a process of decolonization.
Prior to her work as Reconciliation Planner, Soutar worked with the Cultural Planner for several years. She has worked on project consultations with the Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Lil’wat peoples in environmental, cultural, and intergovernmental contexts. Her engagement with Aboriginal artists on public art installations includes outreach to every province and territory across Canada. She is the author of Songhees, a cultural biography of the Songhees Nation in Victoria, BC. She is also editorial contributor to “O Siyam: Aboriginal Art Inspired by the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games”, a book chronicling the Venues Aboriginal Art Program, a project which she also coordinated.
Jérôme Dupras

Jérôme Dupras is the bassist for the Cowboys Fringants and President of the fondation pour la protection de l’environnement (Foundation for the Protection of the Environment.)
His research and multidisciplinary approach are focused on building a scientific method that can be used to value nature, including urban parks to foster greater awareness and investment in nature. He works at both a grassroots level and with major stakeholders and decision-makers to help spread new thinking and engagement in the environment.
Dupras also has a very successful musical career and his band is a platform for spreading engagement in several issues, including environmental ones.
A professor in the Department of Natural Sciences at l’Université du Québec en Outaouais and a researcher at the l’Institut des sciences de la forêt tempérée (Institute of Temperate Forest Sciences), Dupras runs the Laboratory for Ecological Economics. He holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the Université de Montréal and a postdoctoral degree in Biology from McGill University.
Dupras’ scientific work was recently recognized by the Government of Quebec when he received the Quebec Emerging Science Award. He continues to be Involved in several conservation and greening projects, including being Co-Founder of the Green Belt Movement and spearheading the planting of 375,000 trees for the 375th anniversary of Montreal.
Workshops:
Conference workshops will address diverse themes targeting the most pressing issues in city parks, including:
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Creative Partnerships:
Effectively harnessing the power of partnerships between municipalities, park groups, landowners and social housing communities with Les amis de la montagne, Green Change, Grange Park, and Park People.
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Building Inclusion:
Hear from speakers from Halifax to Vancouver including Lezlie Lowe, Exeko, and the Powell Street Festival Society about how to ensure that parks foster tolerance, balance user needs and facilitate interactions among people from all walks of life.
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Financing Models:
Explore innovative funding models to create, improve and animate parks in communities with insights from the Edmonton Federation of Community leagues, Parks Foundation Calgary, and the Centre d’écologie urbaine de Montréal.
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Parks for the Future:
Insights on designing parks to address rapid densification and climate change in our cities with DTAH, the City of Toronto, Société du parc Jean–Drapeau, and the Vancouver Park Board.
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Nature in the City:
Tools and tactics to connect city-dwellers with nature and balance conservation with high use areas with Parks Canada, Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, and the Stanley Park Ecology Society.
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Great Park Programming:
A hands-on workshop with Jamii, Calgary Parks, The Bentway and Quartier des spectacles on how to create impactful, inclusive, programming that meets community needs in all seasons.
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Parks for All:
Join 8-80 Cities, the Toronto Skateboarding Committee and the Rick Hansen Foundation in a deep discussion about accessibility, balancing park uses, and designing and programming parks for all ages.
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Evaluating Park Use and Impact:
The Vancouver Park Board, Sidewalk Labs, and Centre d’écologie urbaine de Montréal address current measurement tools and methodologies that help parks be more responsive to user needs, and their impacts more clearly understood.
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Growing the Local Food Movement:
Dig into the essentials of community food growing in our parks and public spaces featuring Grand River Food Forestry, Greenest City, Spence Neighbourhood Association and Hope Blooms.
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The Art of Building Community in Parks:
Discover the power of art and art-making in our public spaces with groundbreaking community artists Val Vint, Wander’neath, MABELLEarts and Dramatic Changes
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Frank Advice from Funders:
A special session from key park funders to provide key insights to improve your chances of securing funding for your next park project.
Networking Receptions

Build relationships with park people from across Canada at receptions set against the backdrop of iconic Montreal parks, including:
- A private, guided tour up Mount Royal culminating in sunset social overlooking the whole city of Montreal.
- A reception in La Fontaine Park, often cited as the “best park in Montreal.”
- Lunches in the inspiring settings of Parc Gamelin, and TOHU, Montreal’s cultural hub in the center of Parc Frederic Back.
Tours & walking workshops


Join us for tours and walking workshops featuring Montreal’s iconic and innovative parks, initiatives, and public spaces, including:
- Inclusion through greening with Sentier urbain.
- A park friend’s group perspective on Parc La Fontaine’s new master plan.
- Community-run greenhouses and urban agriculture resource centre at Grand Potager.
- Reclamation of abandoned rail lands to enhance urban biodiversity with Champs de Possibles and as a site to explor free play with Le Lion et La Souris.
- Municipal approach to social inclusion in downtown Montreal’s Square Cabot.
- Les amis de la montagne and the challenge of preserving and restoring. biodiversity while maintaining accessibility to 5 million users at Parc du Mont- Royal.
- Explore one of the most ambitious environmental rehabilitation projects ever undertaken in North America at Parc Frédéric-Back.
- Explore three community initiatives reclaiming neglected public spaces in the transitioning Bellechase neighbourhood with Solon and Le comité citoyen de la ruelle Casgrain-St-Dominique.
- A boat tour of nature and heritage programming along the river-side linear parks of the Parcours Gouin with GUEPE.
- Exploring placemaking with La Pépinière.
- Discover some of the great urban greening projects of the ILEAU environmental campaign managed by the Conseil Regional de l’Environment.
- Explore themes of inclusion and how to integrate skateboarding into urban parks with the Toronto Skateboarding Committee and Montreal-based Dave Boots at Peace Park.
Travel & accommodation in Montreal



Park People has reserved a block of rooms at L’Hôtel de l’ITHQ and has secured a 10 % discount with WestJet and with VIA Rail.
The reserved block of rooms at L’Hôtel de l’ITHQ will not be available after April 30th.
We have also booked a block of rooms, with a 10% discount, at M-Montreal, a hostel 3 minutes walk from the main conference venue BaNQ . We will provide travel discount codes upon registration. There are also many great AirBnB options nearby. We will provide travel discount codes upon registration.
Register
Registration:
Heart of the City will bring together a unique mix of park professionals and community leaders. We are offering subsidized pricing for non-profit and community park groups.
Registration for NGO’s and Community Park Groups opens April 15th
Registration rates:
- Park Professionals, Municipal Staff & Individuals: $550 + fees
- Non Profit Organization – Subsidized Rate: $200 + fees Available starting April 15
- Volunteer Community Park Group – Subsidized Rate: $50 + fees Available starting April 15
If you are uncertain which rate applies to you, please reach out to info@parkpeople.ca:
Subscribe for Conference updates:
Park People has a newsletter just for Conference updates. Subscribe for regular updates and Conference developments.
Thank you to our generous supporters:















