Park People Parks Platform 2026: A Joyful, Resilient and Connected Toronto

Picture three people at a picnic table.

A city councillor, representing about twice as many residents as councillors did before 2018, with the same hours in the day. Much of her time goes to addressing issues and complaints.

A City parks worker. They love their work. The best ideas for them are scattered across a dozen municipal strategies. Few of those guide the budget that decides what they can actually do. Urgent issues land on top of their planned work, and often come first.

A resident worried about the cost of living, his family’s wellbeing, and the health of the city he calls home. This past summer he kept his kids inside more, away from bad air, extreme heat, and ticks. He used to have a plot in the local community garden, and misses that chance to be outside with neighbours. 

What would make things better for all three of them? 

A connected network of vibrant and resilient parks and public spaces, and a city set up to properly steward, animate and enjoy them.

This year, hundreds of Torontonians shared their ideas for how to make this happen. From Scarborough to Etobicoke, North York to the waterfront, we heard from kids and adults who love their parks and want to see them get even better. Many of their suggestions are already happening somewhere in the city, but often at a small scale, scattered, and dependent on a few determined people. 

To scale up, we need a common vision and resources to match. 

It is not just Park People saying this. From Toronto’s tourism sector to the Globe and Mail editorial board to national climate advocates, there is unprecedented agreement that Toronto has an opportunity to make high-quality, resilient and beautiful parks and public spaces central to its identity and to the day-to-day experiences of its residents. 

The triumph of Biidaasige Park has played no small part here. It has opened the door to a different future by demonstrating the level of ecological resilience, landscape design quality, cultural programming and Indigenous placekeeping that is possible. There is no going back. 

Working together

It is not easy for the three people at the picnic table to work together. Despite the fact that we often agree on 80% of what we need to do, austerity, power imbalances, legacy processes and everyday interpersonal tensions keep us mired in the 20% where we don’t. 

We believe that the only way to transcend these divisions and build something bigger together is to start with a common vision.

Before we go any further, a big caveat. Toronto’s parks are largely municipally funded and managed. But they are not simply municipal amenities – they are essential health, climate, ecological and social infrastructure that must be funded by all orders of government. Municipalities do not have the revenue tools necessary to do this work at the scale and speed required by the crises we face. To add insult to injury, our three orders of government are not all pulling in the same direction right now. Read more about the province’s attacks on parks.

But limited tools are not the same as no tools. Toronto owns most of its public spaces: parks and ravines, but also the 25% of our city that is roads and rights of way, and the significant lands managed by Toronto Community Housing, the TTC, and other City agencies, boards and corporations. Following the New Deal with the province and some higher property tax increases, parks and green spaces have recently seen increased capital and operating budgets after many years of austerity. 

Toronto City Council is best placed to push for an integrated vision for parks and public spaces – one that builds from what we have and invites other governments to the table to join us. While we agree that revenue tools should sit where the responsibilities and possibilities lie, until that day comes, let’s focus on describing a future so inviting that other governments can’t help but join us in making it real. 

Our 2026 platform has four asks:

1. Establish a shared vision for a connected parks and public space network
2. Invest in essential amenities
3. Centre joy, connection and collaboration
4. Steward Toronto’s biodiversity and adapt our city to climate change

A shared vision for a connected network

What Torontonians asked for. Parks linked to each other, to ravines, to schools, with safe ways to walk and ride between them. Laneways, hydro corridors and rail lands that are treated as part of the public space network. Clear wayfinding, friendly signage, accessible paths and other visual cues that say ‘you are welcome here.’

What we’re asking Council to do:

1. Bring residents and City staff together to create a shared vision for a high-quality, connected, accessible network of green and public spaces across the city. A vision that is inspiring and positive, focused on outcomes we can all play a role in realizing.

This cannot be another strategy document that sits alongside others.

This vision would inform the workplans and strategies of multiple City divisions and agencies, providing particular guidance to those parts of the City that could be more involved in parks and public spaces, but may not know how or where to begin. It would also provide a scaffolding for other orders of government, non-profits, philanthropic organizations, community groups, and local businesses to contribute to this bigger picture. It is an opportunity to rally the city together, celebrate what works, and build on it in a bold and motivating way.  

2. Collaborate with other municipalities and landowners like Hydro One and Metrolinx to link public spaces together and to use open spaces to their fullest potential for biodiversity, community programming, and climate resilience.
3. Invest in wayfinding and signage, with a particular focus on ravines and trail systems, to help people navigate green spaces and get from one place to another.
4. Partner with other parts of the City, like the TTC, to help people find good routes to parks and to navigate the last few metres from transit station to park.

Why now? People and other species experience parks and public spaces as one system, but they are planned and managed as several. The flexibility and openness of marginal spaces like laneways and hydro corridors has made them hotbeds of innovative design, governance and programming. But great standalone projects do not add up to an equitable, citywide approach to public spaces, with common standards and benchmarks for design, accessibility and operations.  

We also rarely talk about how we get to the park, and what it means for park use when people face a lack of safe walking, cycling, or public transportation options. The City is ideally placed to work with other landowners and stakeholders to tackle this set of interconnected challenges. 

Good things that are happening:

• The reimagining of hydro corridors including the Meadoway, the Green Line, and the new Etobicoke Greenway Trail
• The Bentway, which has helped reconnect Toronto to its waterfront through ambitious design and programming
• New visions for interconnectivity like the proposed Loop Trail
• A Parks and Trails Wayfinding Strategy
• Innovative community-led investment in community housing spaces, like Mabelle Park 
• The Durham Meadoway initiative, which would connect to the Meadoway, running east from Rouge National Urban Park through Pickering, Ajax, Whitby and Oshawa
• Resident-led connectivity initiatives like the West Scarborough Railpath 
• Innovative repurposing of the 25% of our city that is roads and rights of way, including an Open Streets pilot on Church St this summer, the PlazaPOPs and TowerPOPs projects, and laneway revitalizations  

Invest in essential amenities 

What Torontonians are asking for: More washrooms, open more of the time. Water fountains and bottle refill stations. Somewhere to sit. Shade. Paths that work with a walker, a stroller or a wheelchair. In winter, cleared paths, warm places to be together, and fun activities to warm up and connect with others. 

What we’re asking Council to do

1. Give us all somewhere to sit. Use the increased parks capital budget to significantly expand the overall amount of park seating – to the level necessary for people of all ages and abilities to enjoy our parks. 
2. As part of this effort, bring moveable seating into more parks. Adapt our current approach so that it can work in neighbourhoods without the resources provided by a Business Improvement Association (BIA).
3. For all new and existing seating, revisit service standards for maintenance to expedite necessary repairs and replacement. Visible signs of active care help restore public trust, particularly in neighbourhoods that have historically seen unequal investment in park design and amenities. 
4. Further invest in and expand the park washroom enhancement program. Tie washroom projects into larger park redesigns to maximize accessibility, functionality and aesthetics. 
5. Reboot the pandemic-era Welcome to Winter program, including:
   • Further expanding winter plowing, and sharing back the results of the pilot project on plowing in naturalized spaces (highly relevant for naturalized spaces like Biidaasige Park and the ravine system)
   • Bring back and expand winter activation of City golf courses
   • Support Parks and Rec to bring recreation programming outside into parks with a focus on winter

Why now: Basic infrastructure like seating, washrooms, accessible paths, and lighting are an equity issue. Too many Torontonians are prevented from fully accessing and enjoying local parks because they are missing adequate seating for rest, or a washroom. 

This issue is compounding as Toronto’s population ages. Research shows that placing seating every 100 metres, can drive significant increases in park use by seniors, one of the demographics that uses parks the least. 

At the same time, our seasons are changing. As smoke and extreme heat play a bigger role in our summers, we risk spending even more time indoors (and online), losing connections to nature and each other in the process. Visiting parks all year round is part of how we positively adapt to our changing climate and stay connected to each other in the winter months. It is also great for stimulating the local economy by getting people out and about, and encouraging tourism outside of the high season of summer. Winter cities like Edmonton and Quebec show us the way. They point to the necessity of investing in infrastructure and programming to encourage winter use.

Good things that are happening:

• Winter access: During the COVID pandemic, the Welcome T.O. Winter program brought recreation programming outside, added marked winter trails on City golf courses, temporary winter washroom capacity and increased park pathway plowing. Increased plowing continued after the pandemic, incorporated into ongoing operating budgets. 
• Seating: People love being able to move chairs around to suit their needs (we all know this, and research shows it too). In parks like Love Park and Clarence Square, partnerships with local BIAs have been successful in making moveable seating work while mitigating the risk of theft. 
• Other types of beautiful and welcoming seating are also popping up in parks, including the iconic yellow lounge chairs at St Andrews Playground Park – recently joined by green versions on the Green Line, and blue ones at Bluffer’s Park. 
• Washrooms: The Park Washroom Enhancement program runs from 2025 to 2031. The City has refreshed 38 washrooms across 31 parks, and is promising to share the lists of the 125 washrooms that will be rebuilt or majorly upgraded in the coming years. 
• New contract for street furniture: In August 2027, we will reach the end of the 20-year contract with Astral Media for street furniture like garbage bins, sidewalk benches and bus shelters. We hope that better designs, combined with the move to in-house garbage collection, will improve our streetscapes and provide opportunities for tying streets and parks together in new, accessible and beautiful ways. Biophilic elements like transit shelter green roofs could further contribute to cooling and greening streets.

Joy, Connection and Collaboration

What Torontonians asked for: Food, music, markets, art. Playful spaces that encourage elders and adults to have fun as well as children. Somewhere to be together that doesn’t involve buying anything. Having a say in what goes on in their local park, and an opportunity to get involved. Knowing who to call to get started. 

What we’re asking Council to do

1. Spend more time with your constituents in parks. Literally. Hold community meetings in parks, attend more events. Walk through the parks and ravines with your provincial and federal counterparts and local community park groups. Fuel your work at City Hall with the joy and sense of connection that comes from being in parks and green spaces. 
2. Champion community partnerships in parks and City-owned public spaces in every ward. Support City staff to make partnership decisions that maximize potential community benefit, even when it involves taking some risks. Use your public platform to make the case for trying new things!
3. Expand existing efforts to reduce permitting costs and simplify processes to encourage community participation in parks. 
4. Don’t let good pilots (like food vending) go unscaled. If it works, expand it, prioritizing parts of the city that would benefit the most. If it doesn’t work, build public trust by talking about what we learned. 

Why now: Municipal voter turnout is at record lows (29% in 2022!), volunteerism is down, and social isolation is growing. Research shows that we need a sense of belonging and social connection to be healthy. Community-led events and activities build it. Collaborating with community groups, non-profits and other partners extends the reach and diversity of park-based programming, welcoming more Torontonians into parks and green spaces. 

Residents should be able to take an active role in caring for their parks. That means accessible permitting, funding opportunities, partnerships with local organizations, and open, transparent relationships with City staff. Supporting resident-led programming, reducing red tape, and investing in community capacity lets parks evolve to reflect local priorities and cultural practices, and builds a lasting sense of community ownership.

Shared leadership in parks and green spaces is not a substitute for strong public management of parks or an excuse for governments to pull back – it is how we build the political constituency and public trust needed to support further government investment. When people get involved, public spaces improve, people enjoy and value them more, and they see government delivering, in partnership with communities. 

Good things that are happening: 

• Toronto has a robust, diverse and thriving city-wide network of park friends groups, community organizations, and others stewarding and animating parks. Over the years, many divisions in the City have found creative ways to support and partner with these organizations to drive social, environmental and cultural benefits. Examples include:
  • Arts in the Parks: The Toronto Arts Council, Toronto Arts Foundation, and many partners and local community groups run the Arts in the Park program, a unique annual event series that supports local artists to bring their art into parks across the city. 
  • Local Leadership Grants: to help implement the Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy, resident-led community groups receive funding for public events, many of which take place in parks and public spaces 
• New food options: This year, the City piloted a food vendor program in select parks from June to October. We are keen to hear the experiences from this first year, and hope that this program can be greatly expanded in future years to support local food businesses and expand food options in parks. 

Ecology and climate resilience

What Torontonians are asking for: More native plants, more trees, less mown grass. Birds and pollinators, supported by the habitat they need. Ravines they can access easily. More opportunities to see and connect to Indigenous ways of being and knowing in urban green spaces. Equitably distributed green and blue spaces that cool our city and make it more liveable. An opportunity to steward and care for nature in the city.

What we’re asking Council to do

1. Push for a formal partnership between the City, the Province, Ottawa, and TRCA to fully fund the Ravine Strategy, with multi-year funding for the whole ravine system rather than project-by-project agreements. 
2. Naturalize a defined share of the park system’s 3000 hectares of mown parkland each year. Actively maintain naturalized areas to foster public support and positive biodiversity and climate resilience outcomes 
3. Value and fully resource parks and green spaces as a key lever in City-wide climate adaptation. Ensure emerging plans are based on a full understanding of their potential contribution to climate resilience (if they were fully resourced), not simply the current benefits they provide. 
4. Be upfront with Torontonians about the scale of investment and urgency needed for climate adaptation. Make the connection between investment in green spaces and our own health and safety, as we increasingly experience extreme heat, flooding, and other climate risks. Work with all of us to push other orders of government to contribute appropriately. 

Why now? 

The City of Toronto is currently developing a Climate Change Adaptation Action Plan, planned for release in 2027. A sobering 2025 report on Toronto’s climate risks recommended that the City “strengthen existing Natural Asset Management Programs, treating green infrastructure, including Toronto’s ravines, parks, wetlands, and urban forest, as essential city infrastructure to match its critical role in climate resilience.” 

Toronto’s ravines are one of the great urban landscapes in the world. They cover about 17% of the city, protect us from floods, cool neighbourhoods, and give people access to nature without leaving town. 

But their many strengths can work against them when they encounter governments. Because the ravines serve so many purposes, their benefits land in many budgets: the City’s, the Province’s, Ottawa’s, and TRCA’s. None of them is fully accountable for the whole, and one of the agencies with the greatest expertise and deepest history, the TRCA, has seen its funding and authority steadily eroded by the province.

Toronto adopted its Ravine Strategy in 2017 and began funding it in 2020, with new money for cleanup, invasive species control, and priority restoration projects. The City also asked other governments to contribute. Six years later, the strategy remains far from fully funded. 

Asking for funding project-by-project hasn’t gotten us where we need to go. We don’t believe it ever will.

Toronto already has two examples that show what’s possible:

Waterfront Toronto, with a board appointed by all three governments and a shared vision, has delivered some of the best parks in the country, from Corktown Common to Biidaasige. But its funding is negotiated project by project, and while three governments pay to build these parks, only one pays to look after them.

Rouge National Urban Park is a different model. When the City, TRCA, and the Province transferred their lands to Parks Canada, the federal government took on responsibility for running the park. Since then, Parks Canada and its partners have restored wetlands and forests and planted hundreds of thousands of native trees and shrubs.

Toronto’s ravines need elements of both: capital investment from all three governments, and a shared commitment to caring for them over the long term. 

Good things that are happening:

• We have a solid foundation to build on in accelerating our biodiversity and climate adaptation efforts, including multiple City strategies that incorporate community involvement as well as City-led actions. 
• Through the Ravine Strategy, over 2000 Torontonians volunteer every year to restore ravine habitat at 53 sites throughout the ravine system. This year there was new funding to work with City and TRCA staff in priority sites where activities (like removing large invasive trees) are not appropriate for volunteers
• The PollinateTO program, which provides microgrants to communities to create pollinator gardens, has created over 33,000 square metres of pollinator habitat across 652 individual gardens 

Conclusion

You made it to the end of this platform! We hope you came away inspired by your fellow Torontonians’ ideas and by the possibilities for our parks and public spaces. 

Share these ideas with your local council candidates and ask them what they’ll do. Here are some specific questions you can use:

1. Tell me your vision for Toronto’s parks and public spaces 
2. What are you doing to make parks more accessible to people of all ages and abilities? 
3. How will you fight for natural spaces like our ravines? 
4. What role will you play in securing the resources we need from other governments for our parks and public spaces?
5. How will you help me and other residents in your ward get involved? 

People are paying attention, and they’ll fight for the places they love. Together, we are looking to our next City Council and Mayor for ambition and vision. By investing time, money and care in our parks and public spaces, our city will grow stronger and more connected, one project at a time. And it all starts at the park.