Park People’s Executive Director, Erika Nikolai, has been honoured with the Distinguished Individual Award from World Urban Parks—an international recognition that celebrates her leadership and the growing national movement Park People has helped build here in Canada.
Why are events in parks important? How do grants fit into Park People’s larger goals for creating change in city parks?
The InTO the Ravines Champions program offers people living near ravines training and support to learn, explore, and celebrate Toronto's one-of-a-kind ravines system.
A reflection on the BEING BLACK IN PUBLIC Survey Report, exploring how Black communities experience parks and public spaces, and what fosters joy and belonging.
For years, Geri and Gary James drove an hour outside Toronto to find nature — not realizing one of the…
How do we build a healthier, greener, more joyful Toronto? We start at the park. Discover how communities across the city have transformed their green spaces over the past fifteen years. Then roll up your sleeves and help shape what comes next.
By donating to Park People, you’ll support vibrant parks for everyone.
Like many before me, searching to understand the nuanced meaning of “land stewardship” led me to Aldo Leopold’s 1949 classic essay “A Sand County Almanac.”
In it, Leopold says: “When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”
In 1949 Leopold said, ‘the modern dogma is comfort at any cost.” Little did he know about what was to come in the form of SUVs, lunchables and fast fashion. While the culture of convenience continues to reign supreme, many are starting to understand the true costs of this “modern dogma.” As a way to preserve the earth and their own mental health, people are increasingly stepping outside ‘the matrix’ to establish deeper connections with nature. Park People’s Cornerstone Parks program, Canada’s only national network dedicated to maximizing the impact and influence of Canada’s large urban parks, is championing the efforts of volunteers who devote their time, energy – as well as their hearts and minds – to nurture a greener, brighter future in the face of climate change.
What appears to the untrained eye as pulling invasive species is in fact, much much more. In a recent essay, journalist and podcaster, Stephanie Foo shares her experience pulling invasives in a New York City park. The experience, as she describes it, was vital in bringing her back from the brink of profound and debilitating climate anxiety.
She begins her essay by plainly sharing that “a couple of years ago, I had a nervous breakdown over, among other things, our planet’s dark future.”
Foo was able to rebuild her life by building a sense of community that included nature.
As Foo says about her experience pulling invasives as a New York City Super Steward:
“When I’m done, I face the tree I freed from the vines and smooth my hand over the scars they left in its bark. I marvel at her branches stretching upwards where they belong, pat her trunk, and say, “You’re welcome.” It’s pretty nice to save a life or two in the morning.”
Stephanie Foo
Indeed, the work undertaken by committed volunteers in Canada’s large urban parks is life-saving work.
Let’s start with facts:
Here’s where life-saving comes in. These volunteers are bringing life back to water, soil, habitats, and more. Hands-on restoration work in Stanley Park led to an increase in the populations of barn swallows and Pacific Great Blue Herons in the park. This is a very, very good sign. Because Pacific Great Blue Herons are at the top of the food chain, their return to the park is a sign of a healthy, well-functioning ecosystem.
Research on large parks indicates that due to their size and rich biodiversity, large parks do more ecological heavy lifting than their smaller counterparts. In short, while sod and a few key tree species are found in your local park, large parks are literally teeming with life – from earthworms to deer. Their size and biodiversity mean large parks sequester more carbon, reduce the heat island effect and buffer more urban noise than their smaller counterparts.
In some circles, the work of large parks may be called “ecosystem services.” But once you’ve rewritten the relationship between humans and nature as ‘community,” this term no longer feels fitting at all.
In Foo’s essay, she cites Robin Wall Kimmerer’s incredible book, Braiding Sweetgrass, and what it taught her about building a new relationship with the natural world. In the book, Robin Wall Kimmerer brilliantly weaves together her knowledge as a botanist, mother and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation to show us the profound lessons plants can teach us. Long before Leopold, Indigenous ways of knowing framed human’s relationship with nature as one of reciprocity.
Layering Indigenous knowledge derived from Braiding Sweetgrass with her training as a New York City Parks ‘super steward’ has had a profound impact on Foo who says:
“I was astonished to learn how impactful fighting for trees really is. According to this New York City treemap, one London plane tree near me saves 2,500-kilowatt-hours with its shade, intercepts 6,100 gallons of stormwater (keeping our oceans and rivers sewage-free), and removes four pounds of pollutants and a whopping 10,500 tons of carbon dioxide from the air each year. People who live in areas with more trees experience better mental health and have lower crime rates and higher property values, whereas the areas with the fewest trees have the highest rates of respiratory illness. Protecting trees isn’t altruism. It’s a form of self-care.”
This simple, yet profound articulation of land stewardship as self-care is one of the central reasons why Park People wants to ensure there is an ecologically and socially vibrant Cornerstone park within reach of every urban Canadian. As Leopold reminds us: “We can be ethical only in relation to something we can see, feel, understand, love, or otherwise have faith in.”
Park People, High Park Nature Centre, Stanley Park Ecology Society and Les amis de la montagne are all-in on Cornerstone Parks. We’re deeply grateful for the dedication of volunteers who are redefining our concept of community.
To step up for your community, connect to the following NGOs leading the charge in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
One of the vignettes in Alan Zweig’s beautiful documentary 15 Reasons to Live features a Toronto musician who falls madly, head over heels in love with birds. He goes from disinterested to virtually obsessed with his bird brethren. In the doc, Jack Breakfast explains his obsession with birds saying something like:
“If the birds only came once a year, on bird day everyone would stop what they’re doing and just marvel at the birds.”
It’s true. Because they’re so ubiquitous, we take the birds that surround us for granted. Turns out, winter is the ideal time to start your love affair with birds. Here’s what Kazeem Kuteyi, lead organizer of Flock Together Toronto, an urban birding collective for people of colour, and Andrés Jiménez Urban Program Coordinator at Birds Canada advise for kicking off your winter bird adventures-no khakis required.
The first bit of advice Andrés is adamant about is to avoid labels. ‘Birder’ is cumbersome terminology that seems to be generally reserved for seniors in khakis with binoculars strung around their necks. And, frankly, it ups the intimidation factor and inhibits curiosity about birdlife.
Drop the moniker and instead, think of birds as curious outdoor companions you can become more familiar with overtime.
Kazeem has very similar advice based on the intimidation factor that comes with the ‘birder’ handle. Pre COVID, you’d find Kazeem DJing and promoting music events to 20-somethings who see him as an insider on Toronto’s club scene. He was the furthest thing from a birder.
When COVID hit and the clubs closed, Kazeem pursued his latent curiosity about birds and invited his community for a walk to check out the birds in Toronto’s High Park. He embraced the fact that he and his community didn’t look like typical birders:
“The idea is to take up space in a place where a lot of us have been conditioned to not feel comfortable in or feel like we belonged,” he said.
Flock Together embraced a decidedly ‘freestyle’ approach to birding. The members of the collective didn’t know a single bird name and had ten-dollar binoculars that they shared among themselves. They didn’t take any particular path to watch the birds. Rather, they meandered to their hearts’ content. Most of the 15 or so people who gathered in High Park that day just used their eyes and ears to experience the birds. Most importantly, Kazeem and his community ditched perceived notions of what a birder was to embrace their version of birding.
As Kazeem said in a recent interview:
“We did talk about birds, but also about music, art, life. The same conversation that might happen in a loud club or over dinner. This way you get to be in this beautiful, peaceful setting. And it’s free.”
Andrés echoes this sentiment. He firmly believes that when you first try connecting with birds, your goal should simply be to become more attentive to your surroundings and let your curiosity guide you. You may end up photographing birds or sketching them, you may just listen to their sounds and not bother investing in binoculars until later. The point is to ditch the idea that you need to be an expert and instead just build a relationship with the birds that are around you. If that leads you to a deeper interest in birding, then so be it.
Andrés Jiménez, Urban Program Coordinator at Birds Canada tells me:
“We should stop calling the people who go south for the winter ‘snowbirds.’ The real snowbirds are the birds from the Arctic who usually hang out with the polar bears and come to Southern Canada once a year for warmer habitat and easier access to food.”
In other words, every winter, Canadians can get a fascinating view of birds that are just temporary visitors to Canada. Imagine, you can participate in a wondrous travelling exhibit of birds that descend from the Boreal like snow buntings, redpolls, snowy owls, and rough-legged hawks, just by stepping out your door.
Kazeem says he was looking forward to hosting Flock Together events this winter because “I honestly hate winter” and birding gave him a reason to go outside. Flock Together events were postponed due to COVID, but Kazeem’s point stands. Having a bird focus can take the dread out of winter walks.
Also, Kazeem says, winter birding is a particularly tranquil way to enjoy the quiet buffer that snow provides. It allows you to slow down and be more attuned to your surroundings on a wintery walk.
And, there’s an added benefit because the birds are more visible without all the leaves on the trees.
Andrés encourages new birders to take the opportunity to build a reciprocal relationship with birds.
Install a small bird feeder outdoors and use this as a start to a long term relationship with birds. Observing birds can be a gateway to looking out for their protection and well-being. Once you fall for birds you’re much less likely to let your cat roam free and more likely to put bird decals on your windows to prevent birds from crashing into them or turn the lights off during the night to avoid collisions. You may decide to plant native species in your backyard to provide food and habitat for winter bird-visitors that travel all the way from their arctic homes for a brief visit to your town. Bird Canada’s Great Backyard Bird Count taking place February 12-14 and is an ideal way for you to demonstrate your reciprocal relationship with birds. All you need to do is watch birds for 15 minutes or more, at least once over the four days. Then, enter your data on the ebird.ca. Additionally, you can get a bird guide tailored for your neighbourhood using Birds Canada’s ID Tool. You can use Merlin Bird App to get a field guide to the birds of the region with photos, sounds, and helpful ID text for bird species likely to land in your backyard. Then, add your bird sitings to a super-cool live map and see the little flashes of light that show the findings of other backyard bird counters. Your local citizen science adds up to more knowledge about birds, globally. How cool is that?
Community park groups have created brilliant safe, socially distanced birding activities that can be replicated by your group.
For example, this year, through a TD Park People Grant, Still Moon Arts Society invited Vancouverites to tune into nature and create a virtual symphony of bird songs.
The creative chorus was a way for Vancouverites to celebrate birds.
“Bird watching and listening are valuable on your own because you can do it anytime anyplace and it helps you connect to our other-than-human neighbours with whom we share the habitat.”
Carmen Rosen, Artistic Director of Still Moon Arts.
The creation of the community and bird collaboration began with an online talk facilitated by environmental educator Sara Ross (RedSara). Participants learned about the birds they might encounter in the early dawn and what birds are singing about as the sun starts to rise.In Toronto, Friends of Sam Smith Park received a TD Park People Winter Grant for a Facebook-based photography contest where the winners are selected by the online community. The contest runs until the end of February.
The scaling stream of the Park People Nature Connect Fund supports organizations across Canada that connect people with nature while fostering ecological stewardship and restoring urban parks and green spaces. Through nature-based activities, hands-on ecological stewardship and restoration and other forms of landcare, grantees will help people and nature thrive together.
Your project can include, but is not limited to, one or more of the following:
The Park People Nature Connect Fund supports local leaders and organizations to sustain, replicate and grow successful projects.
The scaling stream of the Park People Nature Connect Fund is a one to two-year fund.
You could receive up to $20,000 each year to bring your project to life!
Applications for the 2026 Park People Nature Connect Fund are now closed.
March 9 2026
Applications open. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis until April 9, we encourage early applications due to limited funds.
April 2026
Notification to fund recipients
June 2026
Distribution of funds
June – Oct 2026
Projects activities period
Sept 2026
Project report due
Distribution of funds (payment 1)
June 2026 – Oct 2027
Project Activities Period
Jan 2027
Interim report due
April 2027
Distribution of funds (payment 2)
Sept 2027
Final report due
Please read the eligibility criteria to ensure your organization and project are a good fit for this fund.
Your organization will be able to provide matching funds. The matching funds must equal or be equal in value to the total amount requested. Matching funds can include cash, in-kind and other leveraged resources, for example, municipal donations of plant materials, volunteer time.
Your organization will need to have comprehensive general liability insurance in place for the duration of the funding period.
Expenses can include but are not limited to staff time, marketing (e.g., printing posters and flyers, social media campaigns), event materials and equipment, permit costs, insurance, and honoraria. Small built infrastructure projects can be included in project costs, for example, benches, shelters, wayfinding signs, pathways and lookouts. Small built infrastructure can not be the entirety of the project costs and must support and/or be integral to a project that supports connection to nature and has a positive environmental impact.
If successful, your organization will receive up to $20,000 per year for your project.
Please create an account and submit your application on Blackbaud.
The application form should take 1-2 hours to complete. Here is a sample of the form to help you prepare the application.
For more information on creating an account and submitting your application, please refer to the FAQ section below.
Need help with your Park People Nature Connect Fund application?
Our team is here to support you! You can reach us by emailing natureconnect@parkpeople.ca.
Park People is committed to supporting people with disabilities during the application process. If you encounter any barriers while completing your application form or would like to request any access needs, please contact us.
No, please submit only one application per organization.
Yes, funding is available for up to 2 years with a maximum value of $20,000 per year (for a total of $40,000 for the 2-year period).
Please consider that you must have approved project activities for 2 years to be eligible for 2 years of funding. We encourage you to request the amount you truly need to deliver your project successfully. Requesting only what you need helps to ensure we can support as many strong initiatives as possible.
The matching funds must equal or be equal in value to the total amount requested. Matching funds can include cash, in-kind and other leveraged resources; for example, donations of plant materials, volunteer time.
Your organization or project can demonstrate a positive impact on nature in many ways, whether through environmental education, nature-based activities or events or ecological stewardship and restoration or other landcare activities:
Here are some useful links:
Developing an inclusive and accessible project or event involves inclusivity for people of all ages, abilities, backgrounds, accessibility (e.g. physically accessible, open to the public) and safety (e.g. health measures).
For further reading, see our resource on Events Accessibility.
Decisions will be made by a team of reviewers composed of Park People staff. Application selection will be based on the following criteria:
Park People is dedicated to funding a diversity of parks, green spaces and different habitats across Canada, and this will be considered in the review process. While meeting any or all of these criteria will not guarantee that your organization/project will be awarded funding, we are looking for these qualities in each application.
Park People works towards addressing the inequitable distribution of resources within the parks sector. To this end, the application includes questions to help understand if your organization is led by and/or engages with members of equity-deserving communities. Please note that this is not a criterion for eligibility.
We use the term equity-deserving communities to refer to groups who, because of systemic discrimination, oppression, and/or the ongoing impacts of colonization, continue to face barriers that prevent them from having equitable access to resources and opportunities available to other members of society. These may include, but are not limited to, Indigenous Peoples, Black, and other racialized communities, disabled persons, 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, newcomers, women, and people living on low incomes.
The emerging stream of the Park People Nature Connect Fund supports organizations across Canada that connect people with nature while fostering ecological stewardship and restoring urban parks and green spaces. This includes nature-based activities, hands-on ecological stewardship, restoration and other forms of landcare that help people and nature thrive together.
Projects could include:
You could receive up to $5,000 to bring your project to life!
March 2 2026
Applications open
March 31 2026
Applications close
May 2026
If successful, your organization will receive up to $5,000 for your project.
Please create an account and submit your application on BlackBaud.
No, the emerging stream of the Park People Nature Connect Fund is for activities that will be delivered in 2026.
Yes.
Your organization or project can demonstrate a positive impact on nature in many ways, whether through environmental education, nature-based activities or events, ecological stewardship and restoration or other landcare activities:
Park People works towards addressing the inequitable distribution of resources within the parks sector. To this end the application includes questions to help understand if your organization is led by and/or engages with members of equity-deserving communities. Please note that this is not a criterion for eligibility.
Parks, sidewalks, transit, and streets are meant to be places of connection and everyday life. Yet the BEING BLACK IN PUBLIC Survey Report reminds us that public space is experienced very differently depending on who is moving through it.
Led by urban planner and placemaker Jay Pitter, the research fills critical gaps in understanding the Black experience in parks and other public spaces in Canada and the United States. It centres joy, mental wellness, access to opportunity, and the everyday conditions that shape belonging in public life—while also examining how factors such as racism, safety concerns and other challenges influence these experiences.
Jay Pitter extends the research beyond data, grounding it in lived experience and challenging how public spaces are traditionally designed, measured, and governed.
This reflection sits with what the research reveals, not as a technical analysis, but as an invitation to think deeper about joy, belonging, and what it truly means to feel at ease in shared spaces.
Think about the last time you wore culturally inspired clothing without fear, played music loudly in the park, inviting a listener or two, or rested quietly on a shaded bench. Joy is movement without constraint, expression without judgement. In Pitter’s report, joy is described as quiet yet powerful.
That said, you’ll be surprised by how much the little details matter. A clean washroom, a well-maintained trash can, or accessible facilities can turn a simple outing into a space where people feel cared for and safe – a point recognized by 85% of respondents of the survey. Green touches like street trees, gardens, and flowers, along with good lighting and clear sight lines, were highlighted by 84% of respondents as features that invite comfort and presence. Comfortable seating, or even spaces that visibly celebrate Black contributions, were valued by 79% of respondents.
Together, these elements do more than improve infrastructure. They signal that people are respected, seen, acknowledged, and welcome. A bench bathed in sunlight, a well-lit walkway, or a plaque honouring a local Black artist are not merely amenities. They create moments of joy in spaces that might otherwise feel ordinary or unwelcoming.
Joy is also relational. Being around other Black people, or in spaces with diverse communities, was identified by 88% of respondents as a key factor in feeling safe and welcome. Warm greetings from staff or community members (74%) and visible recognition of Black history (70%) further reinforced a sense of belonging. Clear expectations for how people share and interact in these spaces, noted by 65%, also contributed to comfort and safety. Joy grows not just from physical surroundings, but from feeling acknowledged, reflected, and included in the community.
When Black people are able to exist, express themselves, and occupy these spaces freely, the park becomes more than a collection of physical amenities. It transforms into a living, breathing affirmation of presence, belonging, and humanity. Joy emerges in the freedom to inhabit a space fully, to move without constant vigilance, and to feel truly acknowledged and welcome.
While public spaces carry the patterns and routines of daily life, they vary depending on who is walking through them. Waiting for a bus at dawn, walking along a sidewalk after dark, or sitting on a park bench during a weekend morning can feel ordinary for some, but for others, these same activities require careful navigation. The research highlights the absence of comfort that a number of black people feel in these areas that were meant for tranquillity.
The reason for this is that these everyday spaces can carry subtle reminders of surveillance, judgment, and caution for black people. Even spaces designed for leisure, recreation, or daily routines can carry invisible pressures, requiring awareness, vigilance, and sometimes restraint. Streets, sidewalks, parks, and transit that others may take for granted can carry a quiet signal that someone is being observed, scrutinized, or treated differently.
The survey shows that nearly half of respondents, 49%, said buses and subways felt unsafe. A third reported unease on streets, sidewalks, and front stoops, while 27% described discomfort on urban hiking trails or other green spaces. Even outdoor arts venues and concert stadiums were flagged by 21%. These numbers reflect the quiet calculations that Black people make every day – deciding how to move, when to speak, wherever to linger, or if it might be safer to avoid a space altogether. Many respondents also shared that when they witness something harmful or unsafe in public, they often feel powerless to act. This feeling of helplessness adds another layer of emotional weight to navigating public spaces, highlighting how the experience of BEING BLACK IN PUBLIC Survey Report extends beyond personal safety to affect social and emotional well-being. These numbers are not just statistics; they are stories of lived experience.
Yet even where discomfort exists, people continue to seek out spaces that bring life. Outdoor sport fields and urban hiking trails, for example, were still heavily used by Black people despite being ranked among the least safe public spaces. This highlights how important these areas are: they are chosen for play, movement, and connection, not just as thoroughfares. Public spaces support overall wellness – the survey found that spending time in green spaces, walking trails, and parks improved respondents’ sense of physical health, mental well-being, and community connection. These spaces allow people to bond with others, engage in physical activity, and connect with the rhythms of community life, even when they don’t always feel safe or welcoming.
Structural inequities add another layer to these challenges. Many neighbourhoods with predominantly racialized residents are systemically underfunded, leaving public spaces, parks, trails, and recreational areas poorly maintained, scarce, or lacking amenities. The very spaces that could support health, play, and community connection often receive the least investment, while better-resourced neighbourhoods benefit from ample green space and amenities. This inequity reinforces disparities in access, safety, and opportunity, meaning that Black people must navigate both the social and structural barriers of public life.
Representation and visibility also shape experiences of comfort and unease. Public spaces that fail to reflect Black histories, stories, or contributions can leave people feeling unseen or excluded. A mural, plaque, or place name, however insignificant it may seem to the eye, can signal recognition, belonging, inclusion, and consideration for those who inhabit and contribute to the space. Their absence can leave people feeling excluded and make public spaces feel indifferent.
Challenges in public spaces are therefore not only about physical safety but also about cultural, social and emotional navigation. It is the unspoken rules, the historical weight of surveillance, and the anticipation of judgment that shape how Black people move through these environments. Safety in public space is not simply the absence of harm – it is the freedom to occupy space authentically, to be oneself without restraint. The research captures these everyday realities, highlighting the delicate balance between caution and the desire for connection, movement, and joy. This underscores that creating comfort goes beyond design – it is also shaped by culture, history and how people perceive the space.
After moving through these challenges, public spaces reveal their potential to be more than just physical environments. When care and intention come together, they can become a place of safety, joy, and connection. The research pays attention to small moments – the way a space feels when you arrive, the ease or tension in your body, the quiet signals that tell you whether you can stay. For Black people, these moments are rarely unmarked. They are shaped by how care is shown, by who is acknowledged, and by whether presence feels welcomed or merely tolerated.
When public spaces are designed with attention to who uses them, they transform into places of recognition, connection, and belonging. According to the survey respondents, simple gestures make a meaningful difference: acts that demonstrate openness and the effort to make people feel safe, welcome and like they belong. In these moments, design and culture combine to create outdoor spaces where presence is acknowledged, comfort is tangible, and joy can flourish.
Sports fields, walking trails, plazas, and parks can be more than places to pass through. When care and intention shape them, they become spaces to linger, play, gather, and connect. The report highlights cases where outdoor trails, recreation areas, and plazas have been intentionally shaped with input from Black residents, showing that even modest investments in design programming and signage can make a big difference.
Community programs that invite participation, spaces that celebrate the diversity of cultures present in a place, and thoughtful design and practices that consider the different ways that people use the space all help Black people occupy public spaces fully and authentically.
Beyond design and programming, the research points to the importance of policy, governance, and leadership representation. Inclusive policies that prioritize safety, accessibility, and recognition of Black histories and contributions ensure that outdoor spaces are not only well-intentioned but structurally supportive.
Equitable investment in public spaces, particularly in neighbourhoods that have historically received less funding, is critical to making these benefits tangible. Governance that engages community members – particularly Black residents – in decision-making signals that public spaces are shaped with people who use them in mind. Representation in leadership matters as well: when Black voices are included in shaping policies, programs, and decisions about public spaces, it ensures that outdoor spaces reflect lived experiences and respond to real community needs. It also helps residents see themselves in the decisions that shape their public spaces, fostering trust and a sense that their presence, safety, and voices are valued.
Pitter emphasizes that a public space is never neutral. Thoughtful design, community co-creation, supportive policy, inclusive governance and leadership representation can work together with relational and cultural awareness to transform even ordinary outdoor parks, plazas, or streets from sites of caution into spaces of belonging.
Public space is or should be a mirror of how communities value one another. The inverse remains true in everyday life. Joy, ease, and belonging in public life are not accidental; they are fostered by places shaped by care, recognition, and responsibility.
Creating public spaces where people feel free to rest, express themselves, and move without fear requires more than policy or design alone. It calls for attention, empathy, and willingness to understand experiences different from one’s own. When communities open themselves to listening, dialogue, and shared responsibility, public spaces begin to reflect the people who use them – not just in form, but in the way they are lived and felt.
This reflection invites consideration of our design process itself: what would it look like to design public spaces with lived experience, cultural awareness, and community knowledge and care at the center – and how does this approach foster a sense of belonging, care, and shared ownership among the people who use and bring these spaces to life?
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Jay Pitter has just released her latest book, Black Public Joy. Building on the research in BEING BLACK IN PUBLIC Survey Report, the book calls on all of us to become better stewards of each other’s public joy, while claiming our own.
Further reading on these themes:
City parks staff steward some of our most vital yet undervalued public assets: urban parks and green spaces. These areas are far more than patches of grass, they are dynamic community hubs, crucial environmental infrastructure, and essential public health resources.
The annual Canadian City Parks Report (CCPR) equips municipal park staff, community advocates, non-profits, and the public with data and stories that make the case for parks. Between 2019 and 2024, the annually released report illuminated trends, challenges, and opportunities in how we plan, manage, and experience our shared green spaces. Forty-six municipalities participated over these years, collectively representing 48% of Canada’s population.
This report synthesizes the major findings from the CCPR over these pivotal years. It serves as a curated and thematically organized index of data and stories from across the years, with comments on the trends we witnessed through that time.
1- Health Imperative: Parks as Essential Public Health Investment
One of the most consistent trends across the CCPR data is the growing use and recognition of city parks as essential public spaces, a shift dramatically accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. What were once considered amenities are now firmly recognized as critical spaces that support the mental and physical health and well-being of city residents.
2- The Funding Gap: Resources and Capacity Constraints
Despite documented increases in park use and public valuing of parks, municipalities report ongoing financial and staffing constraints that limit their capacity to maintain and enhance park systems.
3- Environmental Function: Climate Adaptation and Biodiversity
Urban parks serve important environmental functions, particularly in climate adaptation and supporting urban biodiversity, roles that have gained increased attention as climate impacts intensify. Parks are more and more understood as ‘upstream solutions’ for the environmental and economic impacts of extreme weather events.
4- Equity and Access: Addressing Systemic Barriers
Participating municipalities reported on their efforts to address equity, inclusion, and reconciliation in park planning and management, reflecting broader societal reckonings with systemic barriers to park access and enjoyment.
5- Evolving Practice: Community Engagement and Complex Operations
Park management now encompasses complex social dimensions beyond traditional maintenance, including community engagement strategies and navigation of challenging urban issues that intersect with public space.
How the park sector can meet today’s complex challenges through partnerships and collaboration.
How Addressing Conflict and Reframing Challenges as Opportunities Can Create More Equitable and Sustainable Parks.
How collaboration, mindfulness, and power-sharing in parks can help nurture and repair relationships between ourselves, our communities, and the wider natural world.
How parks can help create more equitable, resilient cities—not only as we recover from COVID-19, but as we address another looming crisis: climate change.
Trends, challenges, and leading practices in Canadian cities to inspire action, share learning, and track progress in city parks across the country.
Park People launches the first Canadian City Parks Report, highlighting park trends, challenges, and leading practices in Canadian cities.
The Canadian City Parks Report finds tight parks budgets, increasingly extreme weather events, and changing use of parks by residents are challenging cities across the country. But it also finds many cities are leading the way on solutions through an increasing focus on collaborative partnerships, proactive parks planning, and inclusive engagement practices.
In the report, we share:
Budgets tight while populations grow
Cities across Canada are experiencing budget constraints at the same time as growing populations and changing demographics create demand for more parks, amenities, and programming.Resilience must be scaled up. As instances of extreme weather increase, additional pressure is placed on park systems to absorb effects, like flooding. While cities are piloting green infrastructure in parks, there is a need to scale up and standardize these efforts. We found only 48% of cities have citywide green infrastructure strategies that includes parks.
The future is connected
Population growth and urban development is necessitating a focus on proactive parks planning and creative methods to expand and connect parks. Currently 70% cities have updated park system master plans.
Partnerships are powerful
Cities are developing non-profit partnerships and collaborations with resident groups to bring creative programming, alternative funding, and specialized knowledge to help meet new demands on city parks. We found 74% of cities currently have at least one non-profit park partnership.
Inclusion means going deeper
Cities are beginning the work of ensuring parks foster inclusion by exploring their own policies and practices, increasing accessibility, and developing programs for newcomers.
Happy reading!
Park People launches the second annual Canadian City Parks Report, highlighting the trends, challenges, and leading practices in Canadian cities to inspire action, share learning, and track progress in city parks across the country.
As we worked on stories about biodiversity, creative park development, community engagement, and homelessness, the world changed around us. But it quickly became apparent that these stories were not made irrelevant, but more urgent than ever.
This year, the report highlights new city park insights to shape the future of biodiversity, creative park development, community engagement, and approaches to homelessness in city parks.
In the report, we weave together the themes we heard from conversations with city staff with the data we gathered from our surveys of 27 municipalities and nearly 3,500 residents of Canadian cities.
How urban biodiversity improves our well-being and why that matters even more during COVID-19.
How we can both deepen the conversation about biodiversity and broaden it to include more people
Why habitat corridors are important for urban biodiversity and what cities are doing to make sure parks large and small are connected
As populations and development boom in many cities, finding space for new parks is creating challenges—and spurring innovation
How creative community groups and city support are growing connections through food in parks.
This case study is part of the 2021 Canadian City Parks Report, showcasing Inspiring projects, people, and policies from across Canada that offer tangible solutions to the most pressing challenges facing city parks.
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In Canada, philanthropy has historically been focused on public institutions like universities, hospitals, and the arts, but less so on parks. However, recent years have seen major new public space donations in Canada. With rising appreciation for parks during the COVID-19 pandemic, philanthropic interest in parks could grow, bringing both opportunities and challenges.
For Sheila Taylor, Executive Director of the Parks Foundation Calgary, an independent organization that primarily supports resident-led park projects, park philanthropy is connected to the city’s entrepreneurial spirit.
“Citizens have always gotten involved to create the city that they want,” she said. “People deeply care about parks and public spaces—we’ve seen that more and more through the pandemic. And when people care for something they want to contribute to that—whether it’s their time, talent, or financial contributions.”
This deep sense of connection is also why Toronto’s Parks Forestry and Recreation Division’s Doug Bennet believes people give to parks. “Philanthropy is an opportunity for people to give to causes that are important to them,” he said. “People love our parks and a lot of people feel compelled to give back.”
Park philanthropy is still quite nascent in Canada. While there have been some larger donations, such as $25 million for Toronto’s Meadoway, the majority of funding is for smaller-scale projects, such as playgrounds, and community programming. This can take the form of individual major gifts, foundations, corporate donations, and community-based fundraising.
Bennet said that while donations to parks can make real impacts—and he has seen interest in park philanthropy grow during his eight years at the city—it’s important to keep the scale of these investments in mind compared to the overall publicly funded city parks budget.
“It’s not an insignificant amount, but it’s also not an enormous amount,” Bennet said. In the 2020 Canadian City Parks Report, for example, Toronto reported $8 million from private sources out of a more than $100 million capital budget, showcasing the dominance of public funding.
Even with philanthropy-supported park projects, private dollars rarely cover the whole bill. In Calgary, the city’s Leverage Partners Program provides matching funding for philanthropic and community-led park projects through an $8 million budget over 2019 – 2022. Thunder Bay has a similar program where the city will share half the cost with a community for projects over $100,000, while Ottawa splits its cost-sharing program into both minor and major capital projects.
While Canada is nowhere near the scale of park philanthropy seen in the United States, there are lessons we can take from the American experience where drastically reduced parks department budgets have coincided with an explosion of privately funded and operated parks.
Park budgets in Canada, while strained, have not seen the drastic cuts that many American cities have faced, which have effectively shifted a portion of responsibility of care and funding for city parks from the public to the private sector.
This shift has resulted in some truly eye-watering donations, including $100 million for New York’s Central Park and $465 million for the creation and operation of Tulsa’s Gathering Place.
These increasingly large donations have caused some to raise concerns. Critics argue that big money donations distort park planning towards donor visions, crowd out public dollars, and result in the overfunding of showcase parks in affluent, often whiter, neighbourhoods at the expense of lower income, racialized communities.
In response, a new crop of American philanthropic initiatives have sprouted that centre equity, funding underserved communities, and building local capacity.
Take Reimagining the Civic Commons. This equity-focused philanthropic initiative works in 10 U.S. cities to provide public space funding to support equitable economic development, environmental sustainability, and social connections. The project has published numerous resources to assist others in engagement methods, design, and evaluating impact. The experience of New York’s High Line is another example. Following criticism that the heavily privately-funded linear park catered to mostly white visitors and resulted in gentrifying the neighbourhood around it, the non-profit behind the park launched the High Line Network. This new organization—of which the philanthropic-supported Bentway and Meadoway in Canada are members—publishes resources to help other parks follow a more inclusive and equitable development path.
Successful philanthropy responds to community needs and doesn’t arrive with a fully baked plan that provides little avenue for community members to shape outcomes. For cities, it means ensuring transparent and equitable processes for evaluating projects. While some donors may be frustrated at a slower pace for approvals, these processes are critical in providing public oversight.
In Calgary, Parks Capital Development Manager Nico Bernard said that the city has done a lot of work defining the relationship with the Parks Foundation Calgary, including expectations of how projects align.
The city uses a “stage gate” process that involves projects passing through several evaluations. This ensures projects fit within the city’s strategic vision and meet actual user needs. Projects are evaluated several times from proposal to construction. “There’s a rigor there to make sure projects get vetted,” Bernard said.
Part of vetting is “thinking about the future of the space too, not just what happens when it’s first built,” Sheila Taylor said. It’s important to have conversations up front about who will maintain a space long-term before any fundraising agreements are in place.
The Foundation has also helped the city with its own priority park projects, such as the recently completed Rotary-Mattamy Greenway. With its $50 million budget funded by both private and public dollars, the 138km greenway connects 55 communities around the city and was a part of the city’s strategic vision.
In Toronto, Bennet said any donation over $50,000 must go to city council for a vote, which dictates a level of due diligence. “You’re going to want to make sure that you’re putting forward a project that aligns with city interest,” he said.
Additionally, Bennet said that the city directs corporate giving to the city’s Neighbourhood Improvement Areas, which are defined by a set of equity-focused criteria, and other areas of the city that may not have access to the kind of philanthropic interest certain neighbourhoods receive.
Assessing philanthropic opportunities in parks through an equity lens is important as recent reviews of Canadian giving have uncovered some startling divides.
A 2020 report, Unfunded: Black Communities Overlooked by Canadian Philanthropy, compiled financial data from Canadian foundations to look at what kinds of organizations get funded. While the report doesn’t focus specifically on parks investment, the results point towards a systematic failure of Canadian philanthropy to fund Black-led organizations—one that should make the parks sector pause as well. For each $100 given by top Canadian foundations, 3 cents went to Black-led organizations, while community foundations gave 7 cents.
Rudayna Bahubeshi, a policy and programs specialist with nearly five years of experience working in the Canadian charitable sector, said it’s necessary to evaluate park funding through a racial-equity lens given the mental and physical health benefits we know come from access to high quality green spaces.
While it’s important to review which groups and neighbourhoods have gotten funding in the past, Bahubeshi said that it’s critical for organizations to think upfront in program design about what they can do if they’re not reaching Black and Indigenous-led groups.
For example, if a funder is hoping to reach a certain population, they should be clear about those commitments in the grant itself, she said. If people don’t see people like themselves supported in the past, then “it’s not obvious to them what’s a priority for the organization.”
Reforming how grants are reviewed is also key—a topic Bahubeshi explored in a 2021 article for The Philanthropist on anti-Blackness in the Canadian sector.
She stressed that care needs to be taken when assessing groups based on “capacity” because there’s a tendency to pass over groups who have less experience, ultimately resulting in the same groups being funded time and again. Rather than penalizing groups with less experience writing grants, it should be viewed as an opportunity to support these groups to grow, Bahubeshi said.
This advice supports what urbanist and anti-oppression consultant Lena Phillips wrote in a 2020 article on creating safe public spaces where she argued that current funding models privilege certain groups, containing access barriers such as requirements for charitable status or incorporation.
Some granting organizations have since taken steps to address these gaps. Both the Toronto Foundation and Vancouver Foundation have launched grants that specifically target Black and Indigenous-led organizations, offering phone consultations and reducing some of the barriers to access around charitable status.And, while it is a publicly-funded grant, the Federal Government’s 2021 Healthy Communities Initiative, delivered by Community Foundations Canada, contained equity guidance for applicants designed by Canadian placemaker Jay Pitter that is helpful for organizations, cities, and foundations when designing programs.
While much of the focus on park philanthropy is about money, another important aspect—even more so than the dollars, some experts said—is the community capacity and stewardship-building element.
Park People Managing Director Erika Nikolai said it’s the time and energy people donate through organizing community programming that is so important. These smaller activations help build community connections, but also the capacity of these groups to put on larger activities and advocate for improvements.
She also pointed out that the pandemic has highlighted the importance of community programming in supporting more socially connected and healthier communities. Rather than focusing philanthropic dollars solely on capital projects, she said supporting these types of activities can be beneficial, while also requiring less money.
Philanthropic projects can also help bring people together. While solely city-funded park projects include community engagement elements, the quality of that engagement can be different when community members are more directly involved in raising funds, conceiving of a project themselves, or both.
Sheila Taylor argued philanthropy is about building a constituency of support for parks and a sense of shared responsibility and purpose. “I really believe that philanthropy isn’t just giving money, it’s about a commitment of your time and talents to a cause,” she said.
The Foundation focuses on providing tools to communities rather than taking on projects themselves. This includes grants to support conceptual design work and help managing the financial aspects of projects.
“We built a music garden last year and that was a real labour of love that saw many, many Calgarians donate personally,” Taylor said of the Quinterra Legacy Garden, a park built in memory of five youth who were murdered in 2014. “It was probably hundreds and hundreds of donors to this park to create this music garden and it was such a transformational experience.”
Toronto’s Doug Bennet pointed to the experience of philanthropic-supported playground builds. Engaging residents in constructing playgrounds together is a way to build relationships, Bennet said. “Partnership work can be about building that trust and that’s critical for government.”
Another way to tap into similar stewardship and relationship-building impacts, however, may be through participatory budgeting exercises. This publicly-funded process allows community members to propose and vote on a slate of projects to fund in their own community. Canadian cities such as Kitchener, Montreal, Longueuil, and Toronto have piloted this process to varying degrees, with Montreal launching a $10 million budget focused on social and ecological resilience. These cities touted higher rates of participation than traditional park engagement. But they also raised concerns about the potential to foster a competitive atmosphere, which highlights how an equitable, transparent decision-making process is key—whether privately or publicly-funded.
Finally, philanthropic and community-driven projects can help bring fresh ideas and a creative mindset to public spaces. A community can sometimes see connections across different types of public spaces they use in their daily lives—such as parks, hydro corridors, and streets—that a city parks department may not.
As Calgary’s Manager of Partnerships Marisol Narvaez said, philanthropy “does cause us to rethink how we approach public spaces.”
Just look at Calgary’s recently constructed Flyover Park. This unique park was the result of a community vision to reimagine public space underneath a roadway overpass.
Community members worked with middle school students to envision what was possible, eventually bringing on landscape architecture students from the University of Calgary to help flesh out the design. It was ultimately funded by a collection of private donations and funding from both the provincial government and the city.
Now it has become a much beloved spot in the community, but, as Sheila Taylor put it, “it started with children who had an idea to create a park there.”
Note: This story discusses the racial uprisings and attacks of the past year, including the murder of George Floyd, Wet’sutwet’en land defense struggles and attacks on people of Asian descent.
This past year was marked by an unprecedented wave of racial justice movements that fostered hope and resilience in the middle of a global pandemic (no small task). Across Canada and the world, Black, Indigenous and people of colour demanded justice in all its forms.
Wet’sutwet’en hereditary chiefs asserted their rights to ancestral lands in opposition to an oil pipeline that highlighted how colonization continues to play out in the present day. Months later, the murder of George Floyd prompted a similar reckoning, one that focused on the livelihoods of Black people in America and beyond. These movements forced us to engage in uncomfortable dialogues about the ongoing effects of racism and colonization.
It is no surprise then that the response to these struggles have taken place in public space. Professional fields such as urban planning have traditionally promoted the importance of public space for its ability to stay “neutral” in the face of politics and oppression, presuming everyone to have the same access and interactions with their surroundings, regardless of their identities.
So, when Christian Cooper, an African-American man birding in Central Park, and Justine Abigail Yu, a Filipina-Canadian relaxing in a public park, were both subjected to racial attacks in public spaces, it forced this “neutrality” into question. Over the past year, the Chinese Canadian National Council collected instances of anti-Asian hate crimes online. Of the hundreds of records collected, over 50% occurred in public spaces.
Amid the solidarity actions that shut down streets, railways, and other public spaces in response, prominent thinkers such as Jay Pitter addressed this directly: “urban design either perpetuates urban inequity or it can actually resolve urban inequity,” she stated in a news segment.
These stories and numbers confirmed what many Black, Indigenous, and people of colour already knew about this “neutrality.” In short: it wasn’t real. Not for those whose racial identities shaped their experiences in public space as much as the amenities or maintenance. The right to exist in public space, freely, was just as important to make these experiences enjoyable. And the recognition that it should be those very same communities to make the necessary changes was finally taking hold.
Through research, advocacy, and municipal positions, people of colour have been asserting the right to exist as thought leaders in urban space circles. As grassroots movements forced a critical eye on all the ways we are complicit in racism, people working in parks and public space were forced to do the same.
Jacqueline L. Scott noted the huge uptake in her work as a result. Scott is a PhD Student at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto whose research focuses on the experiences of Black people in the outdoors. Since the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, she’s had an unprecedented number of webinar and media requests to talk about her work. She credited this interest to a better understanding that “the same racial hierarchies operate in the outdoor or environmental sectors as everywhere else.” In our April 2021 survey of Canadians, 77% of respondents said they thought people experienced parks differently based on aspects of their identity. Creating a “bridge” between environmental and social justice work is also critical in building relationships with communities that are predominantly racialized.
Scott sees those same hierarchies in the parks and recreation departments she has worked with. A “white wall” evident in staffing is a barrier to departments having the internal capacity to make meaningful changes. For example, in the Greater Montreal Area, the Diversity Institute recorded only 2.2% of public sector senior leadership positions were filled by racialized people in 2019.
It’s something Minaz Asani-Kanji, Manager of Outreach at Park People, has also noticed. “You don’t often see Black people or people of color in these positions. From the park supervisors to even the people that are hired for the summer.”
Some cities have hired specialized staff members to bring in new perspectives and lead equity-related initiatives. In Thunder Bay, the Indigenous Inclusion and Relations Manager and Indigenous Liaison have begun discussions on how to decolonize and Indigenize public space. Projects such as the Northwood Splash Pad have benefitted from such targeted engagement. And in Edmonton, the Indigenous Framework is a result of a co-creation process with Indigenous communities that includes commitments such as removing barriers to employment for Indigenous people.
While these are important steps, Asani-Kanji pointed out it may still not reach people who don’t realize working in parks or urban green spaces is even an option for them. Jacqueline Scott described these as “information barriers” or “privileged knowledge.” Not only are certain communities less likely to see themselves working in parks departments, they may not also have access to existing connections to staff and necessary information that would make them successful in obtaining those positions. Building those relationships is part of the critical work Asani-Kanji does at Park People. Doing intentional outreach to underserved communities through Park People’s Sparking Change program, she supports leaders in these communities to bring their park project to life by giving them the tools to navigate parks departments.
Crucial works that build capacity and relationships hint at the heart of these issues: power imbalances.
Lourdenie Jean, founder of “L’environnement, c’est intersectionnel” (“The Environment, It’s Intersectional”) aims to address this directly. In her work, Lourdenie applies an intersectional lens to better understand which communities are marginalized and how.
“We see these power dynamics everywhere, even in parks and green spaces. Racism, sexism and capitalism are always present.” This is true at every level, affecting neighbourhoods, community organizations, and municipalities alike. These are the uncomfortable conversations that may invoke fear but should be met with bravery instead. From them, we see bold ideas arise.
Urban planner Lena Philips offers some ideas for the community organizations ready to allocate resources more intentionally. She writes a necessary first step is to compensate leaders who step up for their labour. In seeking to support their communities, Philips writes that organizations should rethink the criteria they use in funding and program applications to recognize the wealth of expertise BIPOC communities have.
Communities have also been organizing to organically build power from outside of formal institutions. This has taken many forms, though often through empowering community members to lead.
In Halifax, the social enterprise Hope Blooms provides diverse programming to youth centered around agriculture that tends to the lack of food security among its residents and enables youth to become leaders in their community.
The Ethọ́s Lab directly engages Black youth in Vancouver through mentorship opportunities so they can design and create spaces that feel safe for them. In both of these initiatives, emerging leaders are soon able to name and advocate against the power structures that marginalize their communities. Ultimately, Lourdenie Jean reminds people that sharing power should be everyone’s goal as “centering those on the margins is beneficial for everyone”.
As the protests and barricades happen less frequently, it can be easy for people not directly affected by these issues to think the work is over. Of 32 parks departments surveyed for this year’s report, only five (17%) said addressing systemic inequities and discrimination in parks was a major challenge, while eight (27%) said it was a minor challenge.
This is where policymakers and organizations such as Park People have a responsibility to contribute. In June 2020, we released our statement committing to internal processes responding to racism in all of its forms. Since then, Park People has been undertaking work on this, documenting our progress here.
Through these more formal and informal coalitions of changemakers, the voices of Black, Indigenous, and people of colour continue to remain louder than ever. Scott summarized this sentiment brilliantly: “And so for me, for these organizations: you have an opportunity now. Or are you hoping that it will go away? Because my sense is that we are not going to go away.”