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.
The scaling stream of the Park People Nature Connect Fund offers up to $20,000 to registered organizations across Canada that connect people with nature while fostering ecological stewardship and restoring urban parks.
Learn more about green social prescribing, an evolving practice that encourages individuals to reestablish connections with nature and one another to enhance their mental, physical, and social wellbeing.
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.
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.
The plot of former agricultural land next to the Parc nature de l’Anse-à-l’Orme, on the western edge of Montreal, is fascinating in many ways. For one thing, it’s home to 270 species of flora and fauna that thrive within a mix of wetlands, woods and meadows. It occupies 365 hectares of land, making it one of the largest undeveloped—and until recently unprotected—swathes of natural territory on this island that more than two million people call home. But perhaps the most surprising thing about it is how few people seem to know it exists.
“At so many of the doors we knocked on, people didn’t even know that right beside them was this massive former agricultural land that was regenerating,” says Sue Stacho, Co-founder of Sauvons L’Anse-à -L’Orme*. In 2015, when a huge new residential project called Cap Nature was announced for this parcel of land, she helped start a group to protect it from development.
“We worked really hard – blood, sweat and tears,” she says. “We had to do so much to communicate why spaces like that are so important.” They knocked on doors, and hosted events like a Mother’s Day walk through the woods and evening stroll to appreciate the frog population: “any type of exposure to the area that we could bring to it.”
It worked. In 2019, Montreal mayor Valérie Plante announced the creation of the Grand parc de l’Ouest*, which will protect the area around l’Anse-à-l’Orme from development. But it goes much further than that: the new green space will be the largest municipal park in Canada, with a 30-square-kilometre expanse that includes active farmland, McGill University’s Morgan Arboretum, existing nature parks and previously unprotected natural areas that were vulnerable to development.
It’s a lesson in how grassroots activism can achieve tangible results. And it’s an opportunity to boost the amount of green space in Montreal, which has only 24 square metres per person, one of the lowest rates among Canada’s cities. But the Grand parc de l’Ouest is also a project of staggering scope, complexity and ambition. Not only does it span an area that is 15 times larger than Mount Royal Park, Montreal’s largest and most recognizable urban green space, it is a hodgepodge of different spaces crisscrossed by roads, railways and watercourses. It spans two Montreal boroughs and three independent towns, encompassing five existing nature parks and lands owned by McGill University.
The Grand parc de l’Ouest brings to mind other large, edge-of-city parks, such as the Rouge National Urban Park near Toronto, Fish Creek Provincial Park in Calgary and the Blue Mountain Wilderness Connector in Halifax. Like these, the Grand parc de l’Ouest has the dual mission of protecting biodiversity while giving urban dwellers access to nature. Those goals are not always easy to reconcile. In 2019, Parks Canada developed a detailed management plan for Rouge Park with the goal of balancing the needs of agriculture, recreation and conservation. The Nova Scotia Nature Trust, a charity that manages land across the province, is taking a similar approach in its stewardship of Blue Mountain.
For the Grand parc de l’Ouest, the challenge becomes particularly obvious when you look at its location on a map. Autoroute 40, one of Canada’s busiest highways, runs straight through the park, and in 2023 the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) metro system will open with a station at l’Anse à l’Orme, with trains arriving from downtown Montreal every 10 minutes. That will make the park very easy to access but could pose a problem when it comes to managing human impact on sensitive natural areas. On top of everything, the Grand parc de l’Ouest will be run not by Parks Canada or a provincial authority, but by the City of Montreal, which has more limited experience in managing natural areas.
All of that adds up to something with extraordinary potential – and no shortage of pitfalls.
“It’s been a long time in Montreal since we’ve seen the willingness to make these big gestures,” says Jonathan Cha, a landscape architect, urbanist and heritage consultant. “The challenge will be grouping all of these different natural spaces together. It’s a project that will require a lot of time, a lot of money – a very long-term project. But it’s a grand vision. There’s almost no space leftover on Montreal Island and this secures it for the benefit and well-being of the population.”
That this natural space came to be left undeveloped in one of Canada’s largest and most densely populated cities is the result of a half-century of effort by environmentalists and community activists. As with other parts of Montreal, the western third of the island – a dangling apostrophe of land buffeted by Lake St. Louis, the Lake of Two Mountains and the Rivière des Prairies – was once a lush broadleaf woodland frequented by people of the Haudenosaunee nations that lived in the region. After the arrival of French colonists in the middle of the 17th century, the colonial administration gave control of the land to the priests of the Sulpician Order, who divided it into strips of property to be farmed by colonists.
Aside from a handful of villages and early railroad suburbs, the West Island remained largely rural until after the Second World War.
“Even the tree-lined seigneurial property boundaries were still in place,” recalls historian George Vassiadis, who moved to the West Island as a child in 1968. Things changed quickly with Montreal’s postwar suburban expansion. “For the first few years after we moved into our new duplex on Spring Garden Road, the view across the street was of fields which had only recently ceased to be cultivated,” Vassiadis wrote in the arts journal Montréal Serai. “By the mid-1970s the fields had been replaced with houses.”
As bungalows and strip malls quickly ate away at farmland, developers turned their attention to some of the area’s last pockets of woodland. In 1977, plans were drawn up to raze the Bois-de-Saraguay, a biodiverse pocket of forest next to an old village, and replace it with apartment blocks, single-family houses, two shopping centres and a marina. Nearby residents successfully fought the plans, leading to the creation of Montreal’s first nature park. In 1979, Quebec’s government gave the regional council, the Montreal Urban Community, the power to develop a whole network of nature parks, including several that will now be part of the Grand parc de l’Ouest: Rapides-du-Cheval-Blanc, Bois-de-l’Île-Bizard, Cap-Saint-Jacques and l’Anse-à-l’Orme.
Conservation is the focus in each of these parks, but they are also popular recreational spots for people from across Greater Montreal. The largest of the parks is Cap-Saint-Jacques, which every weekend attracts thousands of people, most of them arriving by car, although that could change when the REM offers rapid transit access. In the winter, they rent fat bikes or snowshoes and head off into the woods. In the spring, they drizzle maple syrup onto oreilles de crisse – crispy pork rinds – at the park’s sugar shack. And in the summer, a broad, sandy beach beckons with views across the Lake of the Two Mountains.
Although these nature parks already cover a significant amount of land, they were broken up by private property that was long coveted by developers. For decades, much of that land had been protected by special agricultural zoning, but when the zoning was lifted in 1991, a resulting tax increase forced many farmers out of business. Over the years, the now-abandoned lands steadily returned to a more natural state. “There’s a whole range of wildlife that had been returning to these lands that had now been left fallow waiting for a development project to come along,” says David Fletcher, who co-founded the Green Coalition, a West Island environmental watchdog, in 1988. “All these animals that are iconic in eastern Canada, like the fisher and the white-tailed deer, were finding their way back to Montreal.”
Sue Stacho, who has been involved with the Green Coalition since the early 2000s, came across the abandoned farmland next to l’Anse-à-l’Orme one day while riding her bike.
“It’s this amazing place. Natural,” she says. “It wasn’t managed with trails and park benches everywhere. There are thermal pools in the spring. There are wetlands. Every time I went, if I went in a new way, I would find something new to learn about. If you know your way around, you can be out there all day.”
In 2015, a proposal to develop the land was announced. Known as Cap Nature and billed by its developer as “an environmentally responsible neighbourhood,” it would have preserved 180 hectares of the old farmland, but the remaining 185 hectares would be replaced by 5,500 housing units. Stacho and other members of the Green Coalition decided to fight it. Banding together to form a pressure group called Sauvons l’Anse-à-l’Orme, they succeeded in recruiting a host of other environmental organizations – including the Suzuki Foundation, CPAWS Quebec and the Sierra Club – to join their cause.
Citizen support was particularly crucial to their effort, which drew the attention of Projet Montréal, a municipal political party with a focus on sustainable development. “Once they learned about the space and realized there was real momentum growing for the protection of it, they were always around,” says Stacho. When Projet Montréal won a surprise victory in the 2017 Montreal elections, the wheels for the Grand parc de l’Ouest were set in motion.
The announcement of the park in September 2019 was greeted by the threat of lawsuits from landowners, including the developers of Cap Nature. By the end of that year, however, the city had managed to negotiate the purchase of most of the privately-held land in question. “There’s still about 40 to 45 hectares in private hands, but there’s no way a viable project could work,” says Fletcher. He considers the park a victory. “It’s been a very long haul. Quite a tumultuous three decades. We’ve been on guard with those lands for all that time.”
Fletcher gives special credit to Stacho, whose ability to raise public awareness of the old farmland is what opened the door to the new park.
“She’s a very energetic woman and her team did a remarkable job in bringing that to a conclusion,” he says. Now the conclusion of one chapter is leading to the beginning of another: the process of actually developing the Grand parc de l’Ouest.
Public consultations began last year, with most activities taking place online due to the pandemic. The challenge now will be to balance different visions of what the park should be. Stacho wants to see an emphasis on conservation, but some West Island residents are eager for more recreational opportunities, with some even raising the possibility of motocross trails in a recent online roundtable discussion. The green space is also used for hunting deer and trapping beavers, which the province recently declined to ban despite pressure from Montreal. “I’ve gone out and seen signs of activity there like shotgun shells and rifle cartridges left on the ground,” says Fletcher. “The kind of trapping taking place there is wire snare – it’s brutal. Absolutely horrific.”
Jonathan Cha points out that, beyond its natural spaces, the Grand parc de l’Ouest includes plenty of built heritage, including stone walls and houses from the French colonial era. “You need a very fine-grained knowledge of the territory to come up with a plan for it,” he says. There’s also the question of active agricultural lands, which make up a significant proportion of the new park. “Who will manage those lands?” asks Cha. “Farmer-proprietors? Co-ops? The city will need to create a new model to manage a park like this. There will need to be an additional layer of expertise on top of what they’re already used to.”
It will be a generational process, he says. “You need to have people around the table who are going to be there for a long time. There has to be a continuity in the process. The challenges are so big and numerous and the area is so vast and complicated there isn’t anyone person who can grasp everything that is going to be happening.”
What it comes down to is something Sue Stacho realized in her fight to save l’Anse-à-l’Orme: parks need people. It was the local community that rallied to protect this land from development, and it was through the collective action of many different people that the Grand parc de l’Ouest was created. Now those same people—and many others—will be needed to shape, sustain and nurture the park for decades to come.
About Christopher Dewolf
Christopher DeWolf is a Montreal-based journalist who focuses on cities and culture. Previously based in Hong Kong, he is the managing editor of Zolima CityMag and a regular contributor to the South China Morning Post, Eater and other publications. His book “Borrowed Spaces: Life Between the Cracks of Modern Hong Kong” examines the tension between grassroots and top-down views of urban life.
The Quebec geographer Louis-Edmond Hamelin (1923-2020) coined the concept of Nordicity by highlighting that winter is a physical and natural season, and a state of mind.The art of Nordicity means first and foremost harmonizing our lives with the rhythms of nature. It means slowing down, taking time to rest, to go and play outside, or curl up indoors. It also offers numerous opportunities for us to examine our perceptions, attitudes and behaviours as we face the elements and build seasonal resilience.
As a winter nation, the season enriches our culture, shapes how we live together, and move about the city. For example, we are seeing a growing number of homemade skating rinks* in backyards and laneways. Winter biking* has seen a remarkable rise in popularity this winter. Our urban parks are packed with walkers, joggers and people tobogganing, cross-country skiing or snowshoeing. In Montreal, parks have even created the perfect setting for an open-air museum made of snow castles and sculptures*.
“You have to first come to a better understanding of winter before you can experience it properly.”2019 – Daniel Chartier, Founder and Director of the Laboratoire international de recherche sur l’imaginaire du Nord, de l’hiver et de l’Arctique*.
Our local urban parks are ideal places to explore our Nordicity and where we begin to truly love the city in winter. City parks where we can discover the potential of winter and build warm memories that will open us up to future outdoor adventures.
Winter is a variable and unpredictable season and requires the right gear. The choice of clothing and equipment is key to managing extreme weather conditions, such as cold, ice or slush.
In order to properly prepare for those unforeseen situations during your daily travels or outings to the park, choose multi-layered clothing and breathable material known for their ability to retain heat (e.g. merino wool).
Being properly outfitted helps ward off the dangers of ice or black ice. Adjustable ice cleats, for example, are one low-cost solution for ensuring that your walks are always safe and enjoyable.
We are even seeing programs supplying this type of equipment free of charge to seniors to encourage them to go for walks in winter, and also to help them cope with social isolation.
To get all the benefits for our mental and physical health, we need to spend at least 10-20 minutes a day outdoors, especially in winter. Of course, this is even truer now in these times of pandemic and lockdown.
Whether you choose to engage in outdoor activities like photography or winter birdwatching or prefer active transportation like cross country skiing, biking or snowshoeing, you can enjoy additional hours of light and the invigorating and meditative effect of moving about outside in the cold winter air.
“In order to change our attitude, we need to become aware that our perception of our surroundings, and the language we use to describe the various phenomena play a key role.” (Pressman 1985, quoted in Zardini 2005.)
Mental Nordicity is a state of mind. It is the acceptance of winter and the cold as they are. Through acceptance, we can mindfully decide to enjoy winter. And to help you do that, here are a few practical tips:
By adopting these practical strategies and questioning your perceptions of winter and of the cold, you can better understand what brings you pleasure or what concerns you when the cold weather comes. This will help you feel more confident about yourself and about winter. Your journal can also serve as a reminder of the pleasures of winter next time you struggle to step outside.
As you bring your children back from school or during a short break from work, take the time to look around and to observe the natural and urban landscapes. Look for white or immaculate banks of snow, snow-covered trees, frozen ponds or rivers, or urban developments that create microclimates (sunshine, wind protection, etc.).
This quest for natural and urban beauty is one way to appreciate and contemplate winter every day.
The ephemeral nature of snow in the city also becomes an opportunity to celebrate and honour it. Take advantage of the next snowfall to enjoy the effects of the slower pace, the calm and the reduced noise. And why not use this opportunity to start the next snow sculpture contest in your local park?
The more time we spend outdoors in the winter, the more we adapt to the temperatures and the elements, and the more we love this season. Dealing with winter in the city means getting used to the changing seasons that punctuate our lives.
It is therefore important that our urban spaces be adapted for all seasons, including winter. This is what we call “the seasonal resilience of public spaces”. This phenomenon is taking on ever-increasing importance and is becoming part of the “Winter Cities” trend. This movement was born out of a desire to better adapt our urban environment to the reality of winter, to promote innovative practices in urban design and to show the impact resulting from the appropriation of public spaces by local communities, regardless of the season.
Increasingly, tools are being developed for decision-makers, experts and citizens who want to help communities better adapt to the realities of winter. To this end, Montreal has created its Guide Ville d’hiver – Principes et stratégies d’aménagement hivernal du réseau actif d’espaces publics montréalais* .
Getting a better understanding of how our Nordicity is reflected in our daily lives is a continuous process, like the seasons that follow one after the other. But one thing is certain: the pandemic has been giving us a thirst for nature, even after the arrival of winter. Therefore, it is essential that our urban parks and public spaces remain accessible and adapted during the cycle of the seasons.
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!
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.
To create an account on Blackbaud and apply, please follow these instructions.
Blackbaud is in English by default, but you can switch to French either before logging into your account or once you have logged in.
Before logging in:
On the login page, click on the drop-down menu at the top left and select “French (Canada)”. The language will update automatically without requiring confirmation.
When already logged in:
On the program’s home page, click on your name and “My Account” to access the menu.
Click on the drop-down menu in the “Language” section and select “French (Canada)”. The language will update automatically without requiring confirmation.
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.
They say all good things must come to an end. But sometimes, if we are lucky, endings can be the start of something even more beautiful. That is exactly what happened at Parc Jarry in the Villeray-St-Michel-Parc-Extension borough of Montreal, where the community park group Coalition des amis du Parc Jarry (CAP Jarry)*, recipients of a TD Park People Grant, turned the cast-offs of the Christmas season into a beautiful Ephemeral Forest of recycled trees that reflected community members’ hope and dreams.
Every January, once the holidays come to an end, bare Christmas trees are tossed to the curb. In fact, there are approximately 6 million trees in Canada that await the landfill every year. If not recycled properly and simply thrown out, every tree can create approximately 16kg of carbon dioxide. Not only does this have a significant impact on the environment, but it also misses a great opportunity to give the trees a more impactful second life.
CAP Jarry, led by Michel Lafleur, set out to tackle this challenge. Instead of the landfill, they invited all Montreal residents to bring their old Christmas trees to Parc Jarry, plant them in pre-made wooden stands, and create a magical Ephemeral Forest where park-goers could wander in a safe and socially-distanced manner. After a two-weeks on display in the park, a company specializing in repurposing wood removed the trees and gave them a new life.
To make the trees even more magical, community members were invited to write their wishes and hopes for the new year on little pieces of paper tied to their tree. This gave every tree a personal touch and it gave people a chance to express their vision for the future. At a time when social interactions are rare and we long to interact with others, reading the personal wishes on every tree felt like an intimate exchange with the Christmas tree’s new owner – their ideas, their hopes, and dreams for the future.
The forest created a sense of human connection at a time when people need it most. Walking through the hundreds of trees in the middle of the vast Parc Jarry created an inspiring, joyful and frankly magical experience.
“Everyone was smiling”, remembers Villeray’s mayor Mme. Fumagalli, who helped facilitate the project from a political and administrative point of view.
“There was a lot of curiosity, a kind of mutual help, above all, such synergy… The project had an enormous positive impact”.
Mme. Fumagalli found it especially extraordinary how citizens got involved and took ownership of their parks this winter. From the Ephemeral Forest to the hordes of Montrealers who built snowmen across city parks after a snowstorm, she says we clearly see “the necessity during winter to have some kind of animation, especially with the current COVID context”.
Another key to this event’s success was in its simplicity: the idea is easily transferable to other parks, boroughs and cities to create their own magical Ephemeral Forest. “I am certain that it is an idea that will have a snowball effect”, assures Mme. Fumagalli. “There is so much potential, from vacant lots to small parks, the reproducible aspect on a small scale, and the fact that it requires few resources”.
The 5th Montreal Park People Forum is back on September 17!
This free, network-wide gathering brings together park changemakers from Montreal and beyond under the theme “Collaborating for Social Connection and Vibrant Parks.” It’s a great opportunity to meet or reconnect with NGOs, community groups, municipal staff, and advocates working to make parks more dynamic, accessible, and resilient.
What to expect: a guided tour of the monastery garden, insightful presentations and panel discussions, a cocktail reception, and networking opportunities — an afternoon full of meaningful connections, learning, and inspiration.
Join the conversation on the future of Montreal’s city parks and explore new opportunities for collaboration and partnership!
This event will be held in French.
1:30 PM
Join us from 1:30 pm at Cité-des-Hospitalières. In between talks, engage in activities, meet like-minded people, and discover new initiatives at our community stations.
If you’re not joining the guided tour, we recommend arriving from 2:15 p.m. onward.
2 to 2:45 PM
Discover the rich history of the “secret” garden at the monastery of the Religious Hospitallers of Saint Joseph, along with the heritage buildings of the Hôtel-Dieu. REGISTRATION REQUIRED.
Don’t wait to register, as spots are limited. If you’ve registered but can’t attend the tour, please inform the organizers.
3:15 PM
Park leaders will share insights and inspiring stories on how community-driven initiatives and local collaborations are transforming parks into vibrant spaces that foster social connection.
With:
The panel will be moderated by Christophe Derrien, Executive Director at Les Amis de la montagne.
5 to 7 PM
Continue exploring new initiatives at our community stations while enjoying finger food and engaging conversations.
Christophe Derrien has been the Executive Director of Les Amis de la montagne since January 2025. With over 25 years…
Joshua Wolfe holds a master’s in urban planning. He has worked for various municipalities (in Quebec and California) and public…
Marc Langlois has been a member of the Coalition des ami·es du parc Jarry since its founding, over 20 years…
Alexandra Nadeau is a researcher with the Centre d’étude en responsabilité sociale et écocitoyenneté (CÉRSÉ). She holds a master’s degree…
Chato Rene Melara is an artisan from Panchimalco, El Salvador, who has lived in Tiohtià:ke for over 15 years. He…
Secure your spot on Eventbrite*
Cité-des-Hospitalières is a historic heritage site located in the heart of Montreal, near Mount Royal Park. This former convent complex was founded in 1861 and acquired by the City of Montreal in 2017. Since then, it has been undergoing a transitional project in partnership with the non-profit organization Entremise, aimed at revitalizing the site as a public space. The project focuses on honoring its rich history and heritage while reimagining new cultural, artistic, and community uses. It embodies the values of reconciliation, hospitality, women’s leadership, and the common good, reflecting the social transformations of Montreal.
Community room at la Cité-des-Hospitalières:
Please indicate your needs in the Eventbrite form or email us at communications@parkpeople.ca so we can support your participation.
Monastery garden:
The uneven terrain of La Cité-des-Hospitalières’s garden is not entirely accessible to people with reduced mobility. If you use a walking aid or wheelchair and would like to take part in the garden tour, please contact us at communications@parkpeople.ca to discuss possible accommodations.
This event will be facilitated in French.
The event is taking place at the community room at the Cité-des-Hospitalières, located at 251 Ave des Pins West in Montreal.
Please enter the building through the secondary entrance (at the back of the community room, on the garden side). The barrier-free entrance is located at the main entrance (security post), through the central door of the building, recognizable by its stained-glass window.
Parking:There is no car parking available on site. However, parking is possible at Hôtel-Dieu (for a fee) or on nearby streets. We recommend using public transit if possible.
Public Transit:The site is easily accessible by public transit, with two options:
Biking:The closest BIXI station is located at the corner of Sainte-Famille and des Pins streets. Bike parking is also available in front of the building.
Music will be playing in the background during the event. It will be at low/moderate volume.
Interaction level will be high. Participants are encouraged to initiate conversations and engage in discussion with others. However, this is optional.
We’ll be serving a selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, and finger foods, including vegetarian and vegan options, during the networking session following the talks. Water stations will be on-site, so we encourage you to bring a reusable bottle to help reduce waste.
The Forum is rain or shine as the main event will take place indoors.
Every year, Park People brings together our network of changemakers—neighbours, volunteers, municipal staff, nonprofits, park leaders, and advocates—at our Park People Summits.
Held in Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal, these summits are more than just local networking events. They’re important moments for us to pause our work, to connect with one another, and to expand our sense of what’s possible in our cities.
At a Park People summit, anyone who cares about urban parks can join the movement to build vibrant, inclusive, and community-powered parks.
How Canadians access and care for their parks is changing dramatically. From increasing rates of social isolation to the instability of climate change, we need everyone at the table if we’re to build more resilient urban parks that meet our growing cities’ needs.
Park People was born from this same spirit. In 2011, a group of Toronto volunteers gathered around a simple but radical question: “How can we all play a role in making our parks better to serve people and neighbourhoods?” This idea struck a chord throughout our city, and a strong network of local park groups, programs, and partnerships began taking root.
But we didn’t stop there. In 2017, we hosted our first national conference in Calgary to bring together park leaders from across Canada to imagine what might be possible if we collaborated on a national scale. That gathering helped launch Park People’s National Network, which now includes over 1,400 park groups in 46 cities spanning every province. This first summit was proof that the grassroots potential we saw in Toronto existed everywhere, and that local ideas can ripple into national change.
We summit because urban parks aren’t just green spaces, they’re people spaces. As city dwellers, they’re our stages for connection, culture, protest, rest, and joy. And behind each well-loved local park are countless stories of community care, from the volunteers who organize clean-ups, to the artists who animate their spaces with music, movement, and meaning.
That’s why we summit: we’ve seen firsthand that when we come together and share these stories, we can create a parks movement that’s truly transformative.
This year’s Toronto Parks Summit is happening on Saturday, June 14, from 12 to 6 PM at Daniels Spectrum, and anyone who cares about parks is invited. You’ll hear stories of creative collaborations and meet the people shaping the future of our city parks. Between sessions, there will be time to connect over food, visit interactive community stations, and share your own experiences as part of this growing network.
Our keynote speaker is interdisciplinary artist Ange Loft, who’ll reflect on Indigenous presence and partnerships in parks, followed by a stellar panel on community-driven initiatives featuring Ana Cuciureanu (Splash on Earth & City of Toronto) Julia Hitchcock (Apothecary’s Garden and Teaching Gardens at Churchill Park), Shakhlo Sharipova (Thorncliffe Park Autism Support Network) and moderated by Eunice Wong (Monumental).
Whether you’re a long-time advocate or just starting your park journey, the Toronto Parks Summit is your space to learn about contemporary park issues. Because real change in our parks doesn’t start from the top down—it grows from the ground up.
And that’s why we summit.
Toronto Park Summit: Saturday, June 14, 2025, 12-6pm ET at Daniels Spectrum (585 Dundas St E, Toronto, ON), Tickets start from $5.
If you require a bursary for transportation or attendance, please reach out to Cynthia Hashie.
Join us and hundreds of park changemakers across the Greater Toronto Area and beyond.
This case study is part of the 2023 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.
As many cities struggle to find ‘new’ parkland in dense urban areas, one Montreal initiative highlights the power of partnerships to make use of what’s already there.
Nestled within Montreal’s Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough, the Darlington Ecological Corridor was founded by Alexandre Beaudoin, Biodiversity Advisor at the Université de Montréal. The goal of the project was to bridge the nature flowing from Mount Royal into the urban landscape, providing new passageways for both wildlife and residents.
Tying together a patchwork of open spaces along a former railroad, the project connects land fragmented along lines of ownership into a cohesive green corridor by fostering collaboration.
The Darlington Ecological Corridor uses an innovative co-management model integrating diverse stakeholders. By uniting academic institutions, community organizations, non-profits, experts, and local residents, the project weaves together several priorities into a coherent vision that serves both the community and nature.
The concept of co-management involves engaging a network of partners working collaboratively, with well-defined roles and responsibilities outlined through management agreements. In this model, Éco-pivot serves as the trustee, providing administrative support and oversight. Université de Montréal contributes academic insight, with 19 master’s students currently dedicated to the project and shaping its evolution. The borough plays a pivotal role, providing a dedicated staff person to anchor the project within the borough’s institutional framework. This tangible commitment by the local government legitimizes the project’s significance within the community and ensures its alignment with broader objectives.
A distinguishing feature of the Darlington Ecological Corridor’s governance model is its adaptability. Over time, through community and partner involvement, the project has broadened its mission, assuming a larger role in addressing social challenges. This evolution is exemplified by a partnership with Multi-Caf, a local organization focused on combating food insecurity in the neighbourhood. The site has a vegetable garden developed in partnership with the YMCA to introduce youth to urban agriculture and gardening. This collaboration highlights the corridor’s transition from a primarily ecological initiative to a multifaceted project that addresses pressing social needs.
The Darlington Ecological Corridor has influenced ecological corridor movements in other boroughs across the city, prompting a similar initiative in the Sud-Ouest. Following the borough’s first-ever participatory budget, one of the winning projects was an ecological corridor connecting the Sud-Ouest to Lasalle.
The success of the Darlington model highlights how creating more connected partners can create more connected green spaces, inviting us to think beyond land acquisition as a strategy to meet parkland needs.
More on this topic:
This case study is part of the 2024 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.
A typical neighbourhood park often contains slides and swings for younger kids and benches for adults to gather, but what about teenagers? What does play look like for them and what park designs are needed to support that?
This is something that Stephanie Watt thinks a lot about. Watt is a co-founder and co-director, along with Margaret Fraser, of Metalude–a public space consulting firm that specializes in engaging with youth up to age 18 to promote public participation, playable public spaces, and child-friendly cities.
Youth are very aware of their “minority” status in public spaces, Watt said, and aren’t often invited to participate in conversations about park design. They sometimes feel like they fall into a gap in public spaces where playgrounds may be designed for younger kids and other park amenities are designed with adults in mind. It’s not about designing literal play structures and objects, but about instilling a sense of playfulness in the space itself, she said.
Take the example of a plaza built in Parc Marcelin-Wilson in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough of Montreal. The park is situated near two large high schools and a public survey and conversations with the schools revealed a need to have a “meeting place for young people,” David Sauvé, Development Officer for the Department of Culture, Sports, Recreation, and Social Development in Anhuntsic-Cartierville said. So the borough decided to test a temporary “plaza” structure in the park, also near a bus stop, meant to be a hang-out spot for youth. The structure included multiple seating areas to accommodate flexible socializing.
Metalude was brought in to better understand the use of the structure. They did this through direct observation of plaza use, semi-structured interviews with youth at the plaza as well as in other parts of the park and even at a shopping mall across the street where youth sometimes go to eat lunch. In the end they ended up collecting observational data from about 500 users and interviewed approximately 50 youth about their experiences.
Engaging with youth requires a different approach, Watt said. That means switching up what you may view as a “professional” engagement. For example, Watt said sometimes they listen to music with youth during their engagements–something that likely wouldn’t fly at a traditional town hall. You have to either keep things really fun or you have to make them really short, she said because youth often have lots of other demands on their time, from caring for siblings to sports practice to homework. It’s about learning how to “build 10 or 15 minute engagement moments that are rich,” Watt said.
The engagement was a learning moment for borough staff as well.
“They brought us back to what it was like to be a teenager in public space. Things we tend to forget when we become adults.”
David Sauvé, Development Officer for the Department of Culture, Sports, Recreation, and Social Development in Anhuntsic-Cartierville
The observational nature of the study allowed for the natural uses of the plaza to be uncovered, leading to potential design decisions about a permanent structure. For example, the importance of the social design of the seating, which was arranged in such a way that four to six people could sit and socialize in a circle rather than the typical park bench design, which forces everyone to face the same way in “a long line of strangers,” Watt said.
“The furniture allows for face-to-face [interactions] and the furniture that isn’t face-to-face was mostly used for waiting by people who were alone taking the bus.”
Stephanie Watt, Co-founder and co-director of Metalude
Another finding was how the use of one particular structure–a net installed on the plaza–was quite gendered. While boys called it a trampoline and jumped on it, girls called it a hammock. Watt said a design recommendation could be to create two different amenities, one that can accommodate jumping and one for relaxing.
You can plan for something, but it’s really important to get out there and see how people are using it. And then accommodate those usages–there isn’t a right or wrong usage.”
Alexandre Beaudoin, Founder of Montreal’s Darlington Ecological Corridor, is a biologist with two Master’ degrees in environmental sustainability and socio-ecology. The Darlington Ecological Corridor puts both disciplines into action by enhancing ecological connectivity between Mount Royal and Montreal. The project simultaneously addresses biodiversity, food security and climate resilience.
In this interview, Alexandre Beaudoin discusses the socio-ecological approach that guides this project. Alexandre will also give a Keynote presentation at the 2023 Park People Conference.
I was a Conservation Assistant with Les amis de la montagne, and we witnessed the foxes disappearing from the mountain. Foxes are one of the biggest mammal species in the city and a symbol of Mount Royal. The fact that they were vanishing was tragic.
Three years later, the foxes began returning to the mountain. We asked ourselves: “What can we do to help foxes cross the city to get back to the mountain? That question was the genesis of the Darlington Ecological Corridor. We knew animals used the train tracks north of the Mountain to cross the city. We wanted to establish a corridor to connect the railway tracks to the mountain.
At the time, I was working at Invest in Montreal* and as a biodiversity consultant at Université de Montréal. We saw an opportunity to connect parks, public lands and greenspaces to link The University of Montreal’s new MIL science campus to the mountain.We presented the idea for the corridor to the Director of the Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough in 2014, and they were very enthusiastic. Together, we put 44 large plant pots along major streets so people living immediately adjacent to the corridor could start to connect to the project at a community level and participate in it by gardening in their community.
Your question is at the heart of every effort to create nature in the city. It’s the same challenge faced by Mount Royal. The mountain is a forest that supports biodiversity, but it has more than 5 million visitors a year.
It takes a socio-ecological approach. The city is an ecosystem, but a very disturbed ecosystem where we can create a habitat for species to thrive. But the ecosystem is also full of people with connections to the places they live. A socio-ecological approach balances people’s attachment to the places they live with the needs of ecosystems and creates new connections between both for the benefit of both.
In the beginning, I was entirely focused on the ecological needs in the corridor. But, my thinking has shifted. The corridor is in an urban environment that is incredibly hot and poses a risk to people’s health in the summer. At the same time, 77% of the people living proximate to the corridor are lower-income newcomers to Canada. There is widespread food insecurity.
We’ve been working with Multi-Caf*, a much-loved food security organization that’s been in the borough for 32 years. They want to support ecology, but they are committed to serving people first. That helped us evolve our mission and strengthened the “socio” side of our socio-ecological approach. Here, people don’t have the luxury of giving their time to gardening without anything in return.
We’ve built out a new part of the corridor focused only on food. The President of a rehabilitation hospital is excited to cultivate the connection between food and health and provided us with land for the community to use for gardening. The borough has also provided space for community gardens in the park.
If we had talked about this project a year ago, it would’ve been much really focused on ecology and forestry. Now, we’re also focused on the community, and that’s a big difference.
Last September, I started a Ph.D. focused on how the corridor can shift people’s mindsets around their relationship to nature and biodiversity. This summer, we’re creating a mico-forest with 400 trees. It’s a visible orchard in the park. When people see something like the orchard, they feel a sense of momentum and say: “something is happening.” People on the team wear our t-shirts, and people walk up to them to talk about the project. They’re not going to our website or calling us. They’re meeting us in the community. So, how can we make it easier for people to recognize us? How can we position how we talk about the project to transform people’s mindsets?
These bigger, more visible projects change both landscapes and minds.
Parks are the first places to change mindsets. People are connected to places, and we must retain those connections while supporting ecology. That’s what’s at the heart of the socio-ecological approach.
Montreal’s Planning and Sustainable Development Department was the first partner to come to the table. They wanted to enhance the quality of life in the city while reducing runoff and addressing the urban heat island effect. This project helped them meet their goals.
The corridor also helped the borough fulfill its social and ecological development goals. Now, there’s a new person in the borough that is focused on Darlington. So now we have a strong, dedicated connection with the borough.
Initially, our focus was on governance and building institutional relationships and building deep relationships with engaged community members living immediately adjacent to the corridor. Later, we broadened our reach and relationships in the community. I think this was the right approach.
Being part of Invest in Montreal and the University of Montreal certainly helped open doors with the borough. I was able to sit in two chairs – I had credibility as part of Invest in Montreal and as part of the community. These two roles were mutually supportive.
Part of our success is attributable to the fact that our project helps partners achieve their goals.
The University of Montreal is happy because the project helps them serve and be connected to the community. There are 19 master’s students working on this project so it serves the University’s academic mission.
The open-mindedness of the borough has made a huge difference. The municipal staff who work in Cote-de-Neiges are committed to making a difference. Cote-de-Neiges isn’t a stop on municipal staff’s career journey. If they choose to work and stay here it’s because they’re committed to this community. If things aren’t possible this year, we will collaborate on how to create policies that open new opportunities next year.
Each partner has helped bring a new lens through which we see the corridor a little differently. It’s helped bring new, valuable perspectives that have reshaped the project and the space.