As Dave Harvey retires from his co-leadership position at Park People, he reflects on the incredible journey since founding the organization in 2011.
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.
In East Vancouver’s Champlain Heights, we sat down with two organizations leading a grassroots effort to restore native forests and build community.
Meet the Ontario Community Changemakers and learn more about their inspiring initiatives transforming parks across the province.
A guidance and resources to measure the impact of your park work on community health and wellbeing, integrating a social equity lens.
Shakeera Solomon from the Vision of Hope Resource Centre in Brampton, a recipient of a TD Park People Grant, shares valuable tips on transitioning indoor programs to the outdoors.
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This case study is part of the 2022 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.
There’s something about the feeling of grass between toes. Or the sound of birds chirping. Or the smell of Earth after it rains. These sensory experiences cause us, often unconsciously, to stop for a moment to feel, to listen, to breathe deeply.
During the pandemic many city dwellers were drawn to parks and natural spaces. In our survey of over 3,000 residents of Canadian cities, 54% said they sought out naturalized parks most often—a jump from 34% in last year’s survey, highlighting the rising importance of contact with urban nature.
Even small spaces count: 71% of respondents said small naturalized spaces within a 10-minute walk of home, like a native plant garden or meadow, helped foster connection to nature. Just half of respondents said the same for traveling to larger natural spaces.
Overall, 87% of respondents reported strong nature connectedness—a finding that was fairly stable across race and income. However, nature connectedness levels grew with age, starting with 83% for 18 to 29 year olds and rising to 94% for those 65 and older.
How aware are we of our body and the Earth as we move through it? Do we know the tree species in our park? When was the last time we gave back to the places that give us so much?
These questions highlight the difference between spending time outdoors—a worthwhile and beneficial pursuit in itself—and feeling connected to our place in the natural world. To feel nature is a part of us, not apart from us is a trait that researchers term “nature connectedness.” As one report put it:
Nature connectedness refers to the degree to which individuals include nature as part of their identity through a sense of oneness between themselves and the natural world.
Another defined it as “an appreciation and value for all life that transcends any objective use of nature for humanity’s purposes.”
While this seems philosophical, nature connectedness has material impacts on the way we live our lives, how we feel, and our impact on the Earth—all of critical importance in an age of rising mental health challenges and climate change impacts.
Nature connectedness has been linked to in-the-moment hedonic well-being (feeling good), but also strongly associated with eudaemonic well-being (functioning well), which contributes to personal growth and long-term well-being.
People who report stronger nature connectedness are more likely to engage in environmentally sustainable behaviours. When we tune ourselves into the natural world, we feel more positive emotions, like vitality. We also ruminate less and act kinder and more generous to those around us—a finding that study attributed to nature’s ability to stimulate feelings of awe that allow us to engage in “unselfing,” or the practice of stepping outside of ourselves.
As an Associate Professor in the Trent University Department of Psychology who has led Canadian studies on nature connectedness, Dr. Lisa Nisbet thinks a lot about what it means to feel connected to nature.
We carry nature connectedness “around with us” like a “personality trait that’s fairly stable,” Dr. Nisbet said, distinguishing it from simply time spent outdoors. You can walk through a park every day to work, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you feel connected to that environment.
Nature connectedness can predict behaviour. Multiple studies have shown that people who report greater nature connectedness also spend more time outdoors and are willing to travel farther for nature experiences. In her own pandemic-focused research, Dr. Nisbet found that university students who reported high nature connectedness “were actually using nature more as a coping method than people that were disconnected from nature.”
For Dr. Nisbet, a huge opportunity lies in city parks and nature education. Many people just see a “green blur,” she said. “Oh, it’s a tree. But is it a red oak? Do we know anything about it and how it contributes to reducing climate change and improving soil quality and the kinds of critters that like to live in it? I think that richer understanding helps people develop a sense of connection.”
While this connection can be forged at any age, Dr. Nisbet stressed the importance of nature education for children. “If you learn about those things early and you learn about the plants and animals in your ecosystems, then you’re just going to be more aware of what’s out there and I think you have more empathy,” she said.
Well before researchers thought up the term “nature connectedness,” this worldview existed, and endures today, as the foundation of how many Indigenous Peoples view their relationship with the Earth as caretakers that practice “reverence, humility and reciprocity.”
Carolynne Crawley—a storyteller, forest therapy guide, and educator who runs Msit No’kmaq—shared that many people often overlook the importance of cultivating a reciprocal relationship with the Earth and other beings. “Oftentimes a relationship with the Earth isn’t prioritized as one would prioritize a relationship with a human loved one,” she pointed out.
A focus on reciprocity and viewing the Earth and other beings as kin is a common perspective of Indigenous Peoples. “The Elders in my life have shared with me that all life is sacred,” Crawley said.
And as people we have an individual and collective responsibility to be in a good relationship with the Earth, just as well as being in a good relationship with ourselves and each other.
Too often the Earth is seen as a commodity to extract from, Crawley said. “I always invite people to think about our relationships with people. If you’re always giving, giving, giving, and someone’s taking, taking, taking without respect and gratitude, then there’s an imbalance there.” Addressing this can include picking up trash along a trail and being aware of our impact on other beings.
Practicing reciprocity can also extend to being more mindful of our language, which Crawley explores in her workshops. “I hear words that reference the Earth and the beings in a way that lacks respect and gratitude and love for those particular beings. And so in my workshops and webinars, we reflect and deconstruct those words.”
Take the word ‘dirt’. While many of us use this to describe Earth, Crawley asks whether it conveys respect for the soil and all it offers. While it may seem small, language can shape our ways of relating to things—it also signals value to those around us, including young children, she said.
Crawley recommended using all our senses and approaching the world with the curiosity of a child. “Hiking is a great activity,” she said. “But oftentimes it’s about getting from point A to point B,” whereas children will meander and explore.
Indeed, a study by Dr. Nisbet highlights the benefits of practicing mindfulness techniques in nature that focus your attention on sensory experiences. In our survey, 81% of respondents said hearing sounds from birds and rustling trees was important to feel connected to nature.
Much of Crawley’s work is guiding people to “return home to the relationship with the Earth” and creating space for people to slow down and notice the world around them. “I believe that relationship, that memory, is in our DNA,” she said. “There’s something called blood memory that I’ve heard Indigenous Elders speak about.”
“Throughout history people have been violently severed from that relationship at different times,” she said. “And yet we still see Indigenous Peoples in that relationship all around the Earth today.”
Crawley stressed that recognizing and honouring the role of Indigenous Peoples as the “inherent caretakers of these lands” should be at the basis of nature education and stewardship programs, adding that it’s paramount to build relationships with Indigenous Peoples and organizations doing this work already.
Cultivating greater nature connectedness can feel challenging in the day to day of urban living. As we’ve written before, there are multiple inequities in the access and enjoyment of urban green spaces, with ramifications for climate justice, equitable park development, and public health.
Being able to spend time in nature can be a privileged activity, Zamani Ra, Founder and Executive Director of the environmental non-profit CEED Canada, pointed out.
Ra stressed that it’s critical to take an anti-oppressive approach, accounting for the specific needs of a neighbourhood or individual, especially when working in racialized and lower-income communities. For people without backyards or the ability to travel outside the city, making time to access green spaces can be challenging, resulting in trade-offs in time spent with family, working or sleeping.
Ra said she found the concept of time poverty helpful in understanding whether people feel they have the time in their lives to do what they need to do, but also what they want to do.
For Ra, making the conscious decision to spend more time in nature for her own well-being, including going for long walks in a nearby ravine, meant working less, which meant less income. “It cost me something,” she said, noting she was living below the poverty line at the time. “I had to decide that the risk I was taking was actually going to be okay for the time being.”
But we don’t have to look far to find nature. In fact, we’re a walking, breathing, beating connection ourselves.
“Nature is a part of everything I do,” Ra said, adding that she brings an African-centred worldview into her work:
Whether I’m inside or outside of my apartment, it doesn’t matter” because we are nature ourselves…You are Earth, you are wind, water, and fire.
“Sometimes I find that people feel bad because they don’t have the ability to access these certain spaces,” Ra said, like large parks outside the city. In those instances, she reminds people that nature is all around and within us.
“I want to empower people with what we already have,” she said, even finding moments to connect with nature in our own homes by noticing the sun on your face or a breeze through a window. Starting small is a great place for people, Ra said. “And then because you’re aware of it now, you more than likely want to do more.”
Residents of Canadian cities are choosing to spend more of their time in nature. In our survey of over 3,000 people, 54% said they visited natural or “wild” parks most often—an increase from 34% last year. Cities are responding to this increased interest as well, with nearly 60% reporting that they already have or plan to expand nature stewardship opportunities due to high demand.
It’s clear that we’re drawn to nature as a way to feel good in mind, body, and soul, particularly during the challenging two years of a pandemic.
While spending time in nature may conjure images of wilderness trails, it doesn’t have to mean traveling to a large park. As we note in our other story on nature connection, feeling more connected to nature can mean different things to different people. It may mean sharing stories on a walk through a park with friends. Or paying more attention to the nature in and around our homes. Or it may be volunteering to plant trees or tend a garden in our own neighbourhood.
The examples below show how leaders from across the country have developed programs that help people connect with nature in different, but equally meaningful, ways.
When Tammy Harkey noticed other women in her community struggling with their mental health early in the pandemic, she decided to do something about it. Councillor Harkey is a proud member of the Musqueam Indian Band, grandmother and mother, and currently serves as the President of the Native Education College. An avid walker herself, Harkey organized the Musqueam Road Warriors, an Indigenous women’s walking group in Vancouver’s Pacific Spirit Park.
The park holds special significance to the Musqueam Nation as part of their unceded traditional territories and a place once close to their village, she said, adding that as Indigenous Peoples, these are the places they should be turning to for personal wellness.
Feeling a connection to nature means feeling a connection to the land, but also to stories shared about the park and the plants and medicines found within it. “Now there’s an entire group that are sharing the stories and memories from their families,” Harkey said. “Really powerful stories. Things I’ve never heard.”
“The Aunts in our walking group really became the teachers,” she said, highlighting the importance of intergenerational learning. In the busyness of their lives before the pandemic, they had perhaps forgotten to take the time to listen to “the things they had to teach us and the messages and stories they had to convey,” Harkey said. But in the quiet of the forest, with the cedars around them, they could be more easily present.
The group is still going strong with about 60 women and girls of all ages who come out for walks in the park. Harkey said it was important the group centered women.
When you can stabilize women—the matriarchs in their families and communities—the whole family gets healthier and happier. And that’s a clear pattern we saw emerge from our group.
Many city residents sought out nature during the pandemic as a way to cope with anxiety, but for people with disabilities it isn’t always easy or possible to visit green spaces.
“Covid has been an explosion of stressors for people with significant levels of physical disability,” Kari Krogh, EcoWisdom Forest Preserve Co-Founder, said. “Going outside, even getting on public transit, and having a vulnerable body—having people cough on you—to get to a park,” was challenging. Not to mention the potential accessibility issues once you get there, she added.
That’s why she and Paul Gauthier, Executive Director of the Individualized Funding Resource Centre, started a group offering online accessible nature wellness programming.
People of all abilities are welcome and can join from a bed, window, or nearby park.
People with disabilities have much to gain from nature connection, and to contribute, but they need options for how and when to access public parks.
Kari Krogh, EcoWisdom Forest Preserve
The program comes from a place of passion for her and Gauthier and stems from their personal lived experience, Krogh said, adding that she acquired a severe disability and lived three years between four walls. “I was in constant severe pain and basically I was immobilized,” she said. “I would have loved a program like the one we’re offering.”
They designed their program to be as flexible as possible, using nature videos and prompts informed by forest medicine and neuroscience. Facilitators lead people in mindfulness-based nature exercises, inviting people to touch, smell, and visualize.
“So much has been out of our control with Covid.” Krogh said. “It allows people with disabilities to come together as peers to support one another.”
This comes across through the words of program participants. One remarked that their pain subsided and they “became relaxed, cheerful, hopeful.” Another said they were “learning to use nature as a free resource to build [their] resilience.”
Initially started with seed funding from Park People’s TD Park People grant program, Gauthier and Krogh obtained funding from the federal government’s Healthy Communities Initiative to expand their work by creating an accessible program to train others to lead nature wellness activities.
As well as being an organizer, Gauthier has himself been able to take away some of the positive benefits of nature connection. His own stress levels have been quite high during the pandemic in his work supporting people with disabilities, he said.
“Being able to stop, to be able to focus on myself and step away from the normal life troubles that I was facing—it’s allowed me to really look at healing for myself,” he said. “And to recognize that by doing that, I can do more for others down the road.”
Riffing off the idea of emotional intelligence, City of Saanich Parks Manager Eva Riccius said her team coined the term natural intelligence when tasked with devising a program to promote nature connection in Saanich. Whether you’re new to getting out in nature or a seasoned hiker, “there’s a place for everyone along the scale,” she said.
The program was designed to encourage people to connect with nature in ways that were accessible to them, whether that was identifying birds in their own yard or getting involved in nature restoration opportunities.
Recognizing the “zoom fatigue” many were experiencing, Saanich staff marketed the campaign as reducing screen time and promoting green time. They partnered with the local news station and newspaper to share stories, organized local hikes, ran a forest bathing session, and promoted various park experiences through a hub on their website.
The result was a dramatic increase in park use, beyond what they had already seen due to the pandemic. Riccius’s team used Google data to see how many people were using parks relative to a 2019 baseline. They found a 100% increase during the campaign—over and above the pandemic-induced bump in park use seen in neighbouring municipalities in Metro Vancouver.
The program provides suggestions for how people can practice reciprocity by thinking about ways to give back to nature, such as volunteering for stewardship activities. On this last point, Riccius said they’ve had so much interest they’ve had to pause their volunteer intake.
The program has spurred more ideas about long-term changes to the city’s parks as well, many of which Riccius said are currently grass, trees, and a playground. The city is looking to strategically naturalize parts of these parks through plantings and restoration projects, which can help reduce water use as well as provide habitat—something other cities like Vancouver, Kitchener, Mississauga, and Edmonton are also doing.
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.
It’s provincial legislation that amends the Planning Act, which governs how parkland is conveyed to municipalities, and the Development Charges Act, which governs how growth-related parkland and park facilities are funded. The bill has reduced the amount of parkland that municipalities will see conveyed, as well as the amount of funding to develop park amenities. It will also impact what types of parkland are acceptable in the future, subject to future regulations, including encumbered land and POPS (privately owned public space).
I think the province was hearing a lot of consternation from the development industry on different fees that are charged to build housing. There was a lot of advocacy from the housing industry showing how much these fees added to the cost of new housing. And also how certain municipalities were not spending their parkland reserves. I think that those two things together, combined with the provincial government’s desire to provide more housing quickly, is what led to those changes.
On the short term side, a lot of municipalities are looking at their capital plan and trying to figure out whether they can still afford those things. In the long-term, I would say that communities built post-Bill 23 will have less parkland than pre-Bill 23 communities, so there is likely to be a bit of an inequity over time.
It was mostly about knowledge-sharing and helping each other understand how we were anticipating advocating. Whether different municipalities were looking to advocate themselves or whether they were looking to advocate by way of other groups, like professional parks associations. There are now 12 participating municipalities represented by managers or senior park planners. People read things differently, so it was good to see how other people were understanding it and what they had heard from their sources.
We were focusing on council briefing notes and advocating messages through the Association of Municipalities in Ontario, Ontario Landscape Association, and the Ontario Professional Planners Institute who seemed to have a bit more of the ear of the government. There wasn’t much of a push to do a public campaign because the deadlines were just so quick.
They didn’t make changes to the reduced amount of parkland that municipalities will see conveyed or provided as cash-in-lieu, but they did claw back on developers providing encumbered land or POPS. That is now subject to future regulation, which hopefully will come with criteria such as land within walking distance of the site. And the proposal that developers would be able to suggest lands that are off site to be conveyed–that’s subject to future regulation as well. Those were some pretty good changes.
We also continue to hold monthly virtual forums when participants have questions or issues. Additionally, we email each other with issues that arise where we can learn from each other.
I think what makes progress is when a number of different groups with credibility on a specific matter are on the same message. So figure out the groups that are aligned with your position and then emphasize the same key messages and concerns. If you can get a sense of which groups are being listened to by the provincial government, then you have a chance of your message being heard a little bit louder than if you go it alone. Sometimes you’ll be successful and sometimes you won’t. But every small gain on the things we’re dealing with–the places where people play–is a gain that is useful.
Public washrooms are a park necessity. Indeed, in our public survey, year-round public washrooms were the top amenity respondents said they would like to see more of in parks. They are also an essential part of a human rights approach to park design—an increasingly important lens as many cities continue to grapple with a houselessness crisis.
But ensuring washrooms are accessible, safe, and well-maintained is a challenge for many cities.
In Edmonton, the city is tackling these challenges head-on through experimenting with creative approaches to enhance washroom provision, safety, and upkeep.
One of the city’s most successful initiatives is the washroom attendant program, which sees staff hired to monitor and maintain public washrooms in locations with significant safety concerns. Staff are hired in partnership with Hiregood, a local social enterprise that provides employment opportunities to those who have lived experience of houselessness and poverty and may face barriers in the job market.
First launched as a 3-month pilot in December 2019, the program has since expanded from 3 to 12 sites, employing approximately 100 full-time and part-time staff. While the first locations were in parks and public spaces, the attendant program now operates in select Edmonton libraries and transit stations as well.
“We had some washrooms that you’d be scared to go and use. But now, because you have folks monitoring and supervising the washroom, there’s been a remarkable improvement in terms of safety and cleanliness.”
Samson Awopeju, Program Manager of the Public Washrooms Strategy at the City of Edmonton.
In addition to washroom maintenance, attendants are trained in de-escalation and equipped with harm reduction supplies. There have been fewer overdoses at sites with attendants, Awopeju noted, and in some locations the overall improvement in safety has been so marked that there is reduced police presence in the area.
Another unexpected benefit of the program was that Edmonton was able to keep its washrooms open during the early days of the pandemic, when many cities were shutting their doors.
These benefits have inspired Calgary to launch its own version modeled after Edmonton’s, with washroom attendants currently being piloted in two downtown parks.
In addition to making existing washrooms more inviting through the attendant program, the city is also testing creative approaches to expand washroom access across the city.
This year, Edmonton launched a new granting program for non-profits and businesses to expand washroom access. The $5000 grants, many of which were awarded to community leagues that operate park programming, can be used to install portable toilets or cover increased maintenance costs for businesses that open their washrooms to the broader public beyond paying customers.
“It’s just financially not possible to put washrooms everywhere. And in such locations, that’s where we want to encourage businesses or community organizations to help.”
All of these initiatives feed into the city’s forthcoming Public Washroom Strategy, set to be released in early 2024. The strategy will include demographic mapping to help identify areas in the city where washroom investments should be prioritized.
The goal, as Awopeju puts it, is “to make sure that everybody has access to washrooms, regardless of who you are.”
The Don River, which runs north-south through Toronto and ends at Lake Ontario, has a long and complicated history. As The Globe and Mail points out, the river has provided transportation and food for Indigenous Peoples, been a boon to beekeepers, used as an industrial and human waste dump, was once perfumed for a royal visit, caught on fire twice, and finally was partially filled in and straightened in the early late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In the words of Jennifer Bonnell, York University professor and author of Reclaiming the Don: the Don is the “most-messed-with-river” in Canada.
Toronto isn’t alone in mistreating its waterways. Many Canadian cities went on a similar crusade of burying, channelizing or filling in streams, rivers, and marshes to make way for urban development. Nature was often viewed as a thing to be tamed, rather than a force to be understood and respected.
Our survey found that 17% of cities have projects, planned or completed, to “daylight” buried rivers by restoring them to the surface, such as Vancouver’s Tatlow and Volunteer Park Stream Restoration project. Other projects approach daylighting through public art, as in the case of Toronto’s Garrison Creek, including murals that celebrate the importance of water to Indigenous Peoples.
Toronto is currently deep into a years-long, billion dollar project to “un-mess” the Don River. Led by Waterfront Toronto in coordination with the City of Toronto, the Don Mouth Naturalization and Port Lands Flood Protection project, aims to restore natural habitat and safeguard adjacent areas from flooding at the same time.
Waterfront Toronto is designing with natural forces rather than against them in the Don Mouth Naturalization project. By re-introducing the river’s meandering path as it meets the lake, the project will slow the flow of water, while new riverbanks are designed specifically to flood, protecting new neighbourhoods that will be built up around them. In a major storm–more common due to climate change–the Don River could see “water equivalent to two-thirds of Niagara Falls” flow down its length.
As Waterfront Toronto Parks and Public Realm Project Director Shannon Baker told Park People in 2021, the goal is not to block water or prevent it from rising and ebbing, but “to accept it and just be resilient to it in the same way that a natural system would be.” For example, vegetation was carefully selected for species that “can bend and flex and allow water to move through.” The riverbank is divided up into different sections from upland forest at the top of bank down to submergent (underwater) marsh, each with their own planting palette.
The task is gargantuan–the largest urban construction project in the country. It has involved moving and cleaning tons of earth, shaping and stabilizing riverbanks using techniques like wood anchors and shale rock, and plantings to support a new river ecology and habitats. Finally park spaces will be created along the edges with various programming, including new trails, beaches, and areas for boat launches to allow for more interaction with the lake.
In the end, by placing the rivermouth back in its natural state, the hope is that all of this engineering will be invisible to anyone enjoying the newly created spaces. While the scale of this project is enormous, it still offers lessons for other cities looking to renaturalize and daylight formerly buried and channeled waterways, reconfiguring their relationship to water from one of control to one of mutual respect.
Canadian municipalities are feeling squeezed on parks. Years of tight operating budgets require parks departments to stretch already thin dollars further as pressures grow from higher use, while land has become much more expensive to acquire—if you can even find a suitable parcel anymore.
One tempting tool in the face of these challenges is privately-owned public spaces, more commonly known as POPS. These spaces are built through private development and remain privately owned and maintained—seemingly a win-win for cities finding it difficult to provide public space and pay for upkeep.
For years there has been pressure by developers for municipalities to accept POPS as satisfying parkland dedication requirements required for new developments—a policy that some municipalities have resisted.
One park planning manager pointed out that while POPS have their role in providing open space, they are not equivalent to public parkland and it’s important for cities to push developers for the conveyance of land for public parks.
To better guide the role of POPS, Toronto mapped over 170 locations and created POPS design guidelines and a signage strategy to ensure spaces were inviting and clearly labeled as public. Vancouver also mapped POPS locations in relation to downtown parks and public plazas as part of their Downtown Public Space Strategy. The Strategy contains actions including developing a policy framework for acquiring new POPS and ensuring spaces “are designed and programmed to be publicly-accessible and welcoming to all users.”
Some cities like Newmarket, Brampton and Vaughan allow for some level of credit for POPS towards parkland dedication. Vaughan, which recently concluded a study exploring parkland dedication policies, ultimately approved a by-law change to allow for 100% credit for POPS, subject to council approval.
Park managers are, however, cautious regarding POPS. If public space is about the creation of accessible, democratic and open spaces, one park manager argued, then privatizing space seems to be contradictory as it comes with “tangible or intangible restrictions” such as limitations on uses, active surveillance, and likely commercial intentions. Where they can be helpful and critical, he said, is in the creation of pedestrian connectivity through private developments or supporting, but not replacing, a publicly owned open space network.
In Brampton, the city allows a 50% credit for POPS.
“In dense areas, you’re not going to get a community or neighbourhood park, so you need a more collaborative approach with the owners of the land and the city.”
Jaskiran Kaur Bajwa, Brampton Park Planning Supervisor
But the city is still cautious about their use and is working on POPS guidelines. “POPS need to contribute to the community,” Brampton’s former Manager of Park Planning and Development Werner Kuemmling said.
They can’t just be an open space or thoroughfare. They have to be functionally used.” Some developers propose POPS as the leftover sites in their developments “and that’s not okay.
Werner Kuemmling, Brampton’s former Manager of Park Planning and Development
This webinar features a wide range of partnership models used in city parks across Canada. From community groups to conservancies, we explore the context underpinning each model and highlight its strengths and limitations. We also take a look at the differences between Canadian and American park partnership models.
Rooted in Park People’s Canadian City Parks Report and a decade of work on park governance, we share the latest opportunities and challenges emerging in Canada’s park partnerships.
The webinar is held in English; French subtitles are available.
Dave has decades of experience working in government on municipal and environmental issues. He excels at bringing partners together and…
Jake Tobin Garrett (he/him) is a writer, illustrator and public space policy and research consultant. He was previously Park People’s…
The Vancouver Park Board is now four years into their 25-year parks and recreation master plan, VanPlay. With a focus on equity, population growth, and evolving demographics, this strategy sets the stage for investments in green spaces and ensures the city keeps up with emerging needs.
While the city now boasts more parks than it did 25 years ago, rapid densification has resulted in a one-third decrease in park space per person. To tackle this challenge, the master plan offers a toolkit for efficient decision-making, accommodating diverse needs and user groups.
What sets this strategy apart is its integration of equity principles, including examinations of intersectionality, privilege, and oppression. At the heart of VanPlay is the goal of rectifying historical inequities in park access and quality across different neighbourhoods. VanPlay positions the City of Vancouver as a leader in this area.
VanPlay employs geospatial data to identify underserved areas that require increased park investments. These areas, known as Initiative Zones, are identified through an analysis of three key factors: park access gaps, demand for low barrier recreation, and tree canopy coverage. With the option to layer additional factors over time, such as income, community engagement, capital investments, and demographic data, the Park Board can gain a deeper understanding of nuanced needs and can effectively target key policy areas.
A significant priority of VanPlay is its water strategy. Vancouver, a city renowned for its connection to the waterfront and beaches, has unfortunately buried 91% of its urban streams. VanPlay enhances biodiversity and rainfall management by revitalizing these streams and bringing them back to the surface. This initiative simultaneously creates more natural spaces in the city, provides new amenities for residents, and helps manage rainwater during storms. It is a significant win for biodiversity and climate resilience.
When it comes to public space, streets play a crucial role. In Vancouver, streets occupy 32% of the city’s land area, compared to 11% for parks. Recognizing this untapped potential, VanPlay encourages the transformation of streets into public spaces. Collaborating with Planning and Engineering, the master plan suggests the creation of parklets, street closures, laneway activations, and more to meet the growing demand for public space.
Connectivity is another key focus of VanPlay. Vancouver already boasts the world’s longest continuous waterfront trail, the iconic 28 km seawall. Building on this success, VanPlay aims to expand the city’s network of bike lanes and pedestrian pathways. The master plan also introduces “network enhancers,” such as bike repair stations, wayfinding signage, lighting, and seating. These elements not only improve connectivity but also enhance safety, utility, and overall enjoyment between destinations.
Further Reading:
As cities struggle to find and pay for new park space to meet growth needs, some argue that a shift towards focusing on quality is part of the solution.
Having enough park space is critical, but the quality of park space can greatly determine its use. Quality can be about the amenities present (or missing), but it can also be about whether a space feels welcoming or safe to people.
“We have to realize that we are transitioning to a state in which securing parkland through development will incrementally become more challenging, effectively leading to a reduction in parkland per capita over time in the absence of alternative parkland acquisition tools,” said one park manager in an Ontario municipality, citing changes to provincial legislation in Ontario that affect the amount of parkland cities receive through development.
“Which means we need to look at quality and use of space rather than quantity much more effectively.”
Park Manager
This park manager noted their city is already seeing a reduction of parkland area in development applications—in some medium to high density new growth areas, the city is seeing up to a 60% reduction in the ability of securing future parks. The reduction is much more acute in high density neighbourhoods where more and more people are required to share fewer public spaces.
While quick to point out that this change is detrimental, this manager also sees a potential positive in pushing cities to look more closely at existing assets and how best to use them.
So, what does a focus on quality look like?
It might look like ensuring park spaces have amenities that a nearby community needs and that those amenities are in good repair. It might also lie in understanding the socio-cultural dimensions of a park and whether the facilities, programming, and overall design are relevant for surrounding communities.
These seem like basic measures, and yet just 43% of cities said they measure park quality at all. Even fewer collect socio-demographic data on park use to understand whether the park is meeting diverse community needs. At the same time, 100% of cities reported aging infrastructure and asset management as a challenge.
For one park manager, part of the answer lies in rethinking the intensity of use of parkland and ensuring that we’re maximizing the potential of land and amenities.
For example, the manager noted that one of the challenges that growing cities are facing is designing for large format sports facilities like soccer and baseball, which are land intensive while limited to a single use. If cities are going to need more of these facilities to meet demand, the question is then how to increase the intensity of use in existing assets for longer periods of time, rather than simply thinking about where to build new ones, this person said.
One idea might be looking at seasonal doming of sports fields so they can be used all-year regardless of weather conditions. Other cities, like North Vancouver, are turning disused infrastructure into amenities that meet current demands, like transforming an old swimming pool into a skatepark. Other cities have split uses between warmer and colder months, allowing for once single-use facilities, like tennis courts, to be used for other purposes, like off-leash dog areas in the winter months.
All show the potential of rethinking existing spaces to ensure they’re performing well and meeting current community needs.
Park People is excited to launch the 2024 Canadian City Parks Report, our sixth annual edition highlighting the most significant trends, issues, and practices shaping Canada’s city parks.
Watch our special launch webinar to explore our findings:
The webinar features an engaging discussion on the future of city parks, with guest speakers from the City of Victoria and Greenspace Alliance. They share opportunities and challenges in their work around collaborations and partnerships, across city departments, communities, non-profits, and more.
Adri Stark is specialized in research and policy at Park People, and co-author of the annual Canadian City Parks Report.…
Joy is the Manager of Research and Partnerships at Park People and facilitates national research and network engagement that supports…
Julia is the Food Systems Coordinator for the City of Victoria. She comes to the role after over 15 years…
Nicole DesRoches, born in Ottawa and living in Chelsea Québec, part of the National Capital Region, therefore living within the…