As Dave Harvey retires from his co-leadership position at Park People, he reflects on the incredible journey since founding the organization in 2011.
Why are events in parks important? How do grants fit into Park People’s larger goals for creating change in city parks?
Explore inspiring community-led events funded by our microgrants program, from land-based learning to nature walks and skill-sharing workshops.
How colonialism plays out in park practices and how we can work together to embed reconciliation and decolonization.
Discover ways to help you host events in your local parks during extreme heat events.
Each year, Park People Summits bring together our growing network of urban park changemakers to connect, reflect, and explore what’s possible for more inclusive, community-powered parks in our cities.
By donating to Park People, you’ll support vibrant parks for everyone.
Parks are not “nice to have,” they are critical social, health, and environmental infrastructure for Toronto. City parks are lifelines in extreme heat waves. Social connectors in an age of increasing polarization. Keepers of biodiversity despite ever fragmenting urban landscapes.
To meet the biggest challenges we face in Toronto—climate change, biodiversity loss, social polarization, rising inequality—we need whole new ways to plan, design, manage, program, and govern parks. This shift requires doing things differently. It requires ensuring proper funding, sharing decision-making power, addressing inequities head-on, and prioritizing action on truth and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.
As Toronto faces the upcoming mayoral by-election in June, we urge candidates for Mayor to accelerate the transition to a more equitable, resilient future for city parks by working with us on the ideas presented in this platform.
All of the ideas in this platform require us to invest more time and money into city parks. In our 2022 survey of residents of Canadian cities, 87% said they support more investment in parks.
Responsible for 60% of Canada’s infrastructure, municipalities like Toronto receive only 10 cents on every tax dollar.
And, the provincial government’s drastic changes to park levies and planning rules under Bill 23 will further diminish park budgets and reduce the amount of parkland created to support new growth.
All three levels of government, each of which have responsibilities for our natural environment and human health, need to come to the table. This is easier said than done. The multiple benefits of parks—health, environmental, social, economic—actually make it harder to invest at the scale we need to. Why? Because the benefits of investing in parks are distributed across many different ministries and government departments, each of which are accountable for their own budgets and plans. That is why we need to support governments to pursue an ambitious, whole-of-government approach to investment in Toronto parks.
Investing more in city parks is not an imposition or an obligation. It is an opportunity to transform Toronto for the better.
People living in Toronto will need to adapt to hotter, wetter and more unpredictable climates. Climate change is here and is already impacting our city. With the right investment, parks can serve as climate infrastructure and provide people with critical places of refuge in hot, dense cities where a major health crisis is unfolding.
At the same time, people are seeking out nature more for its mental and physical health benefits. People want more places to experience nature close to home: 71% of survey respondents said they value visiting naturalized spaces within a 10-minute walk of home, such as a native plant garden or small meadow. In fact, 87% of respondents said they were in favour of more native plant species within parks—the second most requested amenity after public washrooms. Toronto’s Ravine Strategy offers a strong road-map for ensuring these vital, biodiverse natural habitats are safeguarded for the future and enjoyed by residents, but funding has remained limited.
Invest in the co-benefits of naturalized spaces as climate resilience infrastructure, urban biodiversity habitat and vital nature connections in Toronto.
There is a clear and growing disparity in who has access to quality green spaces in Toronto. As COVID laid bare, equity-deserving communities face complex, interrelated health crises. Toronto must recognize how race, income and the built environment conspire to make parks a pressing environmental justice issue in our city.
Usable parks are the bar for entry. Toronto’s parks maintenance and operating budget has not kept pace with use and demand. There’s an urgent need to increase park operating budgets to ensure basic amenities like bathrooms and water are standard in every single Toronto park.
Spending on park operating budgets must start to keep pace with demand. It is basic: amenities like bathrooms and water must be the standard in every single Toronto park, with a priority focus on equity-deserving and high-use parks. Investments in basic amenities that promote park use must include:
There is an urgent need for new models of Toronto Park governance rooted in shared decision-making power. We need a new way of managing city parks that are more inclusive, and community-focused, and respect the land rights of Indigenous peoples and the knowledge of communities.
Over the past several years, communities have been actively working to decentralize power in institutional spaces. It is time for Toronto to give communities more decision-making power on the park issues that affect them most, particularly in equity-deserving communities.
TD Park People Grants is a nation-wide program that builds vital connections between people and parks.
Each year, we support over 70 community groups across 21 urban areas to animate their local green spaces with engaging events. From Indigenous plant medicine workshops to nature walks, we’re looking for unique ideas that centre environmental education, sustainability, or stewardship, and are designed with accessibility and inclusivity in mind.
In 2025, event organizers are eligible to receive $2,000 to bring their park vision to life.
Need some inspiration for your park event? Read on to learn about three of the incredible groups that received TD Park People Grants in 2024!
La Boussole is a Francophone nonprofit organization based in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. They support people experiencing poverty or marginalization to access health services, housing, and employment in French, while uniting their voices to raise awareness of the issues that face the community.
Through their 2024 TD Park People grant, La Boussole sought to reduce the barriers that prevent Downtown Eastside residents from enjoying nature in their city—such as transportation costs and the stigmatization that unhoused people face when in green spaces—and create restorative experiences that supported their participants’ mental health and wellbeing.
La Boussole organized two events, starting with a nature walk in Spirit Pacific Trail. Participants were led by a facilitator who shared knowledge of natural preservation, Indigenous land rights, and climate justice as they explored the lush forest together. Next, they held an eco-art-therapy session in Stanley Park, where participants were guided to create art using natural elements without damaging the environment.
“These kinds of events are crucial for our audience as the Downtown Eastside area is extremely urban,” noted La Boussole’s facilitators. “The population is suffering from extreme heat in summer and losing its connection to nature.”
Thanks to their efforts, 28 participants had the chance to deepen their connections to the environment, and to one another, through restorative experiences in their local forests.
”I really enjoyed this outing in the forest. It was nice to return to the Pacific Spirit Park, it’s been a long time since I’ve been there. I love forest smells, pine smells and it was cool to go on the walk with Aloïs because there were lots of things we learned that I didn’t know. Being with the whole group, everyone was able to share a little bit of their little anecdotes, the little information they had on their side so it was a great experience.”
Event participant
LifeSchoolHouse is a network of barter-based “folkschools” that create connections through skill-sharing across Nova Scotia. Folkschools are informal learning spaces, usually held in a person’s home, where neighbors become teachers as they share their skills in small group workshops.
LifeSchoolHouse breaks down the financial barriers many people face when trying to access education, and helps to connect neighbours in simple but meaningful ways. In this vein, organizers at the LifeSchool House in Spryfield, Nova Scotia used their 2024 TD Park People grant to organize two free outdoor events where neighbours shared knowledge of environmental education, sustainability, and stewardship with fellow community members.
These immersive experiences included guided nature walks for 43 participants of all ages to explore their surrounding environment. 16 volunteer teachers assisted them in identifying flora and fauna, while offering tips on sustainable practices for preservation.
After their walk, the groups enjoyed a locally-sourced lunch followed by a litter clean-up session—offering a tangible way for participants to keep contributing to the wellbeing of the local green spaces.
“These parks are right in our backyards and we don’t even realize all the treasure they hold.”
“Thank you so much for putting this together! We expected it would be fun, but it far exceeded all expectations. Everyone was so kind, especially with the sort of chaos that comes with little people. It meant so much that my child was welcome. We loved getting to meet everyone, and feel like this is our community!”
The Kapabamayak Achaak Healing Forest Winnipeg is a living memorial to Indigenous children lost to or affected by the residential school system. It was the second Healing Forest developed in Canada, and is part of a growing network of sites linked by the National Healing Forest Initiative.
A place for healing and contemplation, the Winnipeg forest is an open-air, land-based classroom for elders to share teachings and ceremony. These Keepers of the Forest have hosted dozens of teachings and ceremonies since the site was developed in 2017.
In 2024, they used their TD Park People grant to partner with local schools to bring together children and educators to reflect upon Truth and Reconciliation and the value of environmental conservation. Their land-based learning experience incorporated Indigenous Ways of Knowing, showing children the healing power of connecting with the land and traditional plants like the sage which grows in the forest.
Their two events in 2024 brought together over 300 attendees (students, teachers, and community members), and included a nourishing meal of bannock and jam.
“The schools we work with have large numbers of Indigenous children. Many have relatives who are still dealing with the intergenerational trauma of residential schools. These events honour their lived experience and provide a path to healing based upon Indigenous Ways of Knowing.”
Event organizers
Have these events inspired you?
Visit our TD Park People Grants page for more information, and full eligibility criteria, for this year’s program. Applications are open now and close on February 24, 2025.
In this webinar, storyteller Hillary Clermont, historian and artist Philip Cote, and Indigenous grower Isaac Crosby connect Toronto’s Indigenous history to current Indigenous-led ecology work, to help understand how we can deepen our connection to the plants and animals of our land and ravines.
The webinar is held in English; French subtitles are available.
A Candid Conversation in Celebration of Park People’s 10 Year Anniversary
This webinar explores the barriers and opportunities for creating parks as natural places for engagement across differences.
*The webinar title comes from Jay Pitter, an award-winning placemaker whose practice mitigates growing divides in cities across North America.
The session is held in English; French subtitles are available.
Carolynne Crawley is a Mi’kmaw woman with mixed ancestry from the East Coast. She is dedicated to social and environmental…
Ambika is a Ph.D. candidate at the Daniels Faculty, University of Toronto. Her research is focused on recent immigrant engagement…
Proudly Franco-Albertan, Chúk’s passion lies in the interactions between culture, health and the environment. Outside of this work with Future…
Zahra is a public interest designer and strategist focused on shifting power to people who are typically underrepresented in institutions…
At Park People, we believe that parks can play a vital role in reconciliation and decolonization.
We’re inspired by park projects across the country that are focused on rebuilding trust, sharing knowledge and developing true partnerships between First Nations and settlers, such as The City of Quesnel, BC, which restored ownership of Tingley Park to the Lhtako Dene First Nation, or the agreement between the Tsleil-Waututh Nation and Metro Vancouver Regional Parks.
As a national city parks organization, Park People recognizes that when we speak of municipal parks and public land, we are obscuring the fact that, in most cases, the land that we are speaking of is traditional Indigenous territory. That’s why we share our land acknowledgement on our website and at all Park People events.
As part of our own journey, we want to share some insights from our process developing our land acknowledgement.
It’s essential that your park group undertake thoughtful research to learn about Indigenous issues globally, nationally, and in your city or region.Find out which territories your park is situated on and the treaties or covenants that were meant to peaceably govern that land. Use nativeland.ca as a starting point.You may find conflicting accounts of territorial land rights. Reach out to a local band office, municipal Indigenous Affairs Office, an Indigenous Friendship Centre, or an Indigenous university group to understand the history and rights associated with the land in question.
Set aside time for your group to discuss your land acknowledgement plan and your broader reconciliation goals.Create space for members to share meaningful land acknowledgements they’ve heard at other events, literature they’ve read, and news and ideas. This will help create a dialogue to shape your groups’ perspective and commitment. These conversations will also help you to identify champions within your group who can help guide future reconciliation efforts.
Reading a generic land acknowledgement that you don’t understand or feel connected won’t further the goals of truth and reconciliation. Work with your group to write an acknowledgement that reflects the unique history and contemporary character of your park.
Consider how your land acknowledgement can leave listeners with something informative and provocative to ruminate on, long after your event has finished.
Writing a land acknowledgement is an opportunity for your group to publicly declare its commitment to working towards allyship and working to dismantle the colonial systems that continue to oppress Indigenous peoples, denying their land-rights and way of life.Add a commitment to the land acknowledgement that articulates how your group is going to put words into action. Find tangible ways your group can impact this complex and ongoing work.
Once you feel like you have done your research and written a meaningful land acknowledgement, consider sharing it with a respected member of your local Indigenous community to get their feedback.Be respectful of their time, and don’t expect accolades for this preliminary effort. Use the opportunity to express your willingness to engage with the local Indigenous community on the subject of decolonization.
Consider inviting Indigenous-led organizations to attend and participate in your group’s events and gatherings whenever appropriate.
Plan in advance how to compensate those who participate by sharing their time, expertise and knowledge.
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…
Today Park People launches the sixth Canadian City Parks Report–and the final iteration of this report in its current form: Bridging the Gap: How the park sector can meet today’s complex challenges through partnerships and collaboration.
Last year, we dove deep into the minds of park managers across the country, interviewing over 44 senior parks staff across 30 municipalities about the trends and challenges in the industry. One of the key insights from that process was a need to find collaboration sweet spots to achieve our many collective parks goals.
This year’s report expands on that insight by showcasing collaborative examples from across the country and through collecting data from 35 Canadian municipalities, over 2,500 residents of Canadian cities, as well as interviews with park staff and professionals.
Through that process we found six key insights related to collaborations and partnerships:
In this report you’ll find:
How does the City of Victoria’s Get Growing Victoria program take a food justice approach to provide gardening supplies to communities at risk of food insecurity, including those experiencing houselessness, Indigenous and racialized communities, seniors, and youth.
How Toronto is transforming future park spaces into temporary public areas through partnerships, letting residents enjoy them now while planning for long-term park development.
How partnerships across city departments and with local community groups helped the City of Charlottetown recover from Hurricane Fiona’s devastating winds.
How Mississauga is expanding parkland in a growing neighborhood to meet future demand through a cooperative, long-term property purchase plan.
How a temporary plaza in Montreal’s Parc Marcelin-Wilson was created to offer a gathering space for youth, with design improvements informed by Metalude’s insights through direct observations and youth engagement.
How an agreement between the Tsleil-Waututh Nation and Metro Vancouver Regional Parks provides a path for shared cultural planning.
How can municipalities move from awareness to action? A conversation with Jay Pitter about Black people’s experiences in parks and public spaces.
How Waterfront Toronto is raising the bar on inclusivity through their Waterfront Accessibility Design Guidelines.
How Nature Canada is building a web of partners at all scales to help Canada achieve its biodiversity conservation goals.
Park People launches the fifth annual Canadian City Parks Report: Surfacing Solutions: How Addressing Conflict and Reframing Challenges as Opportunities Can Create More Equitable and Sustainable Parks.
Over the past five years of the Canadian City Parks Report, our goal has always been to tell a story—the story of where city parks are going and where they need to go.
This year, we took an even deeper approach to gathering these stories. We sat down for interviews with 44 senior parks staff across 30 municipalities, who generously shared with us the challenges they are facing, the projects and people inspiring them, and their vision for the future of city parks.
In the report, we weave together the themes we heard from those conversations with the data we gathered from our surveys of 35 municipalities and over 2000 residents of Canadian cities.
Dive into the pdf to read about our key insights on trends and challenges in city parks:
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.
Discover Vancouver’s ambitious parks and recreation master plan, using innovative mapping to guide equity-led parkland investment.
Brampton leads the way with its Eco Park Strategy, a citywide initiative focused on naturalization projects that preserve and enhance natural and cultural heritage.
How the City of North Vancouver is working to better engage equity-deserving groups in its longstanding Park Stewards program, including people who are underhoused, newcomers, and at-risk youth.
The Montreal’s Darlington Ecological Corridor bridges urban and natural spaces while addressing both ecological restoration and social needs through meaningful partnerships.
A look into the logistics of collaborative governance in a large urban park with Meewasin Valley Authority in Saskatoon.
Learn more about the District of Saanich’s collaborative approach to tackling conflict over off-leash dog parks.
How cities are navigating the benefits and challenges of privately owned public spaces (POPS) through creative policies and guidelines on design, stewardship, and public programming.
Restoring the Don River’s natural flow, Toronto’s renaturalization project enhances biodiversity, mitigates flooding, and reconnects the city with its waterways.
Public washrooms are a park necessity.. Discover Edmonton’s approach to creating safe, inclusive public washrooms.
Bill 23: A conversation with Michelle Dobbie, Manager Park and Natural Heritage Planning, City of Richmond Hill.
Happy reading!
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.
In Metro Vancouver, a ground-breaking agreement between a government agency—Metro Vancouver Regional Parks—and the Tsleil-Waututh Nation shows a different way of managing parks and highlighting their past and present cultural value.
At 2,560 acres, təmtəmíxʷtən/Belcarra Regional Park is two and a half times the size of Vancouver’s Stanley Park and receives 1.2 million visitors per year. The park was also the site of the largest ancestral village within the Tsleil-Waututh Nation.
Gabriel George, a Tsleil-Waututh Nation member and also the Nation’s Director of Treaty Lands and Resources Development said that a lot of the Nation’s territory falls into parkland “so it’s been something that historically has isolated us and disconnected us from our land. I think the importance of trying to engage and have partnerships…is an important way for us to exert our rights.”
Mike Redpath, Director of Parks for Metro Vancouver Regional Parks said that Metro Vancouver Regional Parks began working with the Tsleil-Waututh Nation in 2017 on developing a “Cultural Planning and Cooperation Agreement,” which was signed in 2020. The agreement outlines a shared vision, guiding principles, and governance for the park. These include, among others, protection of natural resources, promotion of the site for recreational use, and increased public awareness of Tsleil-Waututh Nation cultural history.
“There’s a strong acknowledgement within the agreement and the relationship that it is public land; however, there was a traditional use of the site and the agreement strives to find a balance between the two,” Redpath said.
Good governance is a cornerstone of a successful partnership. The cooperation agreement contains two mechanisms for joint-governance: a Leadership Committee and a Technical Committee, which include both members from the Nation and Metro Vancouver Regional Parks.
Projects are prioritized in an annual work plan by the Technical Committee, which is then approved by the Leadership Committee and submitted during an annual budget process. Each individual project includes an “engagement agreement,” which outlines deliverables and ensures both partners understand roles and responsibilities.
The agreement also includes economic development policies, such using Tsleil-Waututh approved contractors in the park to support local entrepreneurs.
“We had an economy in place that was basically stripped from us,” George said. “We had currencies older than paper. We had systems of trade. So we lost that.” He noted that his people used to harvest clams for thousands of years, but then had to “sneak around at night…because they weren’t allowed.” so seeking out these economic opportunities is “our inherent right.”
Although the cooperation agreement was signed just four years ago, there have been several significant projects that have been implemented since then, with more on the way.
The first was a park renaming in 2021, which changed the park’s name to təmtəmíxʷtən/Belcarra Regional Park. Prior to this, Metro Vancouver Regional Parks had not engaged in any renaming of the regional park system to traditional place names with First Nations communities.
For George, the term “renaming” doesn’t quite fit, however. “It’s more than that,” he said.
“It’s recognizing the real name of that place. It’s important because we need to be represented. We need to be seen. We need to be heard on our own territory.”
Gabriel George, Tsleil-Waututh Nation member and Nation’s Director of Treaty Lands and Resources Development
Redpath also said it provided Metro Vancouver Parks with a naming precedent that could be used in other places. Indeed, another regional park has just had its name changed from Colony Farm Regional Park to ƛ̓éxətəm (tla-hut-um) Regional Park–a name gifted by the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem) First Nation that translates to “we welcome you.”
Another joint project was the just completed installation of a welcome pole in the area of the Nation’s traditional village site. Other projects have included environmental restoration work, interpretive programming, and the development of a Cultural Heritage Study that will better understand the depth of cultural history of the park.
While it took time to implement the agreement, Redpath said it provides many benefits. Staff are “able to pick up the phone and talk to someone at the Nation who’s a familiar face. It helps advance projects together and sometimes faster as well.”
The willingness to try doing things differently is key to success. “It’s a change process,” Redpath said, adding that it’s a different way of doing business in many ways. He stressed that early and ongoing communication is key for the trust-building necessary for a strong partnership.
“The agreement is a piece of paper, but the relationships and the conversations are really what make it successful.”
Mike Redpath, Director of Parks for Metro Vancouver Regional Parks
George echoed these sentiments. “It can be so easy to not change things,” he said, but it’s important to push outside of comfort zones and do things differently. “You can’t fix all the issues, but when you approach the work, think about what kind of legacy you can create.”
“I think for Indigenous Nations, parks can be important places to occupy and to reclaim,” he said, adding that they’ve seen big successes in some of their relationships to their parks. “This is our home. We think of it as an extension of our community.”
I will retire from my co-leadership position at Park People at the end of June 2024, thirteen years after I founded the organization.
This milestone has me considering the many positive changes that have happened in urban parks in Canada since 2011 and the special role that Park People has played in advancing them. It’s been quite a journey for me, the organization, and Canada’s incredible ecosystem of city parks.
Since the very beginning, Park People’s work has been about creating new connections—between people and nature, between neighbours when they meet by chance in public spaces, and between leaders and bold ideas that can make our parks even better.
Park People’s own origin story echoes this theme brilliantly. In 2010, I released a paper for the Metcalf Foundation, “Fertile Ground for New Thinking,” with my ideas for improving Toronto’s park system. Its final recommendation was to start a park-focused NGO in the city. At the time, I had absolutely no intention to start or lead such a group, but an enthusiastic group of people were inspired by the paper and pushed me to start an NGO. In return, I cajoled them into becoming our founding board members and volunteers. We then embarked on a bold plan to support more people to see themselves as park leaders and to connect them to the tools they would need to create great parks for everyone.
On April 12, 2011, we officially launched Park People with our Toronto Park Summit. This was our first opportunity to connect park professionals and emerging advocates in our city. Through these lively conversations, we began building the collective power required to support and sustain vibrant green spaces that all urban residents can enjoy.
In the years since our original group of board members and volunteers has expanded exponentially: Park People now has more than 25 staff members, offices in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal, and a national board of city and community builders. We’ve also engaged thousands of new supporters — our Park People Network now unites 1,400 local park groups in 35 cities in every province, and we’ve provided grants to grassroots community leaders to animate their parks in 21 urban areas.
When launching Park People, our goal was to spark a city parks movement that could fundamentally change how our society sees the value of these public green spaces. It was an ambitious vision, but I think that through our work with many great partners and community leaders, we’ve achieved it.
Canada’s parks have changed significantly in these last 13 years, mostly for the better. Park People is proud to have been a small part of these shifts, contributing vital research on trends and opportunities and working with governments and park leaders to support progressive park policies.
As a result:
The major increase in park use during the height of the pandemic wasn’t a one-time blip: I’ve never seen so many people using our parks in so many new and creative ways. Parks are where we meet with friends, celebrate occasions, mourn losses, sample great food, hear music, and experience art—they’re key to the diversity, richness, and joy of urban life.
This belief has long guided the design of Park People’s grants, training, and networking programs, which have helped hundreds of people turn their parks into dynamic community hubs. We’ve consistently made the case for the unique value of parks, from our parks-focused platform for the 2014 Toronto election to solutions papers, national conferences and our Canadian City Parks Report.
They aren’t frills—they’re core to the character of our communities. Our research has shown that they measurably improve our physical, mental, and overall well-being and can serve as antidotes to the social isolation and loneliness epidemic.
Who isn’t using parks is as important as who is. Through programs like Sparking Change, Park People centres equity-deserving communities in our program planning and delivery, collaborating with them to ensure their knowledge and experiences make parks accessible for all. As we embark upon this work and share what we have learned from it, we’ve observed that equity metrics have increasingly become a core part of park planning and acquisition strategies in municipalities across the country.
As Rena Soutar of the Vancouver Parks Board says, “There is no such thing as a culturally neutral space that’s been touched by human hands.” The 2022 Park People Conference featured three of Canada’s leading Indigenous park professionals, Rena, Lewis Cardinal, and Spencer Lindsay, who addressed how colonialism plays out in park practices and how we can embed reconciliation and decolonization into the places we call parks. As an example, the Vancouver Park Board has implemented co-management and guardian programs with Indigenous communities. At the same time, Edmonton worked closely with Indigenous leaders on kihcihkaw askî, the country’s first urban Indigenous culture park site.
As our climate changes, urban parks are becoming increasingly important spaces to mitigate heat, absorb stormwater, and protect plants, animals, and people. Park People has been at the forefront of highlighting opportunities for parks to serve as powerful tools for climate change mitigation and adaptation.
The value of a park doesn’t lie in size. Small pockets of green space can be far more meaningful to our well-being. As our cities increasingly densify and the cost of land rises, we’re seeing neglected spaces such as those under highways, roads, electricity corridors, railway lines, and even old landfills being transformed into beautiful natural spaces. Our research and financial support helped spur such innovative parks as Toronto’s Meadoway and Bentway and Calgary’s Flyover Park.
We’re asking a lot of our municipal parks departments. More people are using parks, and staff are now entrusted with addressing issues of homelessness, equity, reconciliation with Indigenous people, climate change mitigation, and adaptation. In my opinion, their work is more interesting and rewarding, and park staff are making a positive difference in our cities and communities. But it’s certainly a tougher job than it used to be. In response, Park People has made supporting and connecting our municipal park staff partners one of our top priorities.
The populations of our cities are rapidly increasing, and park budgets in Canadian cities are frankly not keeping up. If this longtime trend continues, I’m concerned about what our parks will look like 13 years from now. Without appropriate funding, there won’t be enough parks to meet community needs. We’ll slide down into an American-style model, where a lack of government support created a crisis in parks that philanthropy and private conservancies had to address. Partnerships and philanthropy are great, but there is absolutely no replacement for properly funded city parks departments.
Creative community partnerships are no longer the exception for city parks; they’re the norm. From working with local volunteer groups to creating formal park conservancies, park departments are embracing collaborations with unexpected partners to add value to city park resources, not replace them. Park People made the case for such partnerships from our earliest days, and we have helped to nurture and lay the groundwork for some of Canada’s leading park partnership models. Meanwhile, the federal government is becoming an important player in city parks. Canada was once one of the few jurisdictions without a strong federal role in city parks. But after creating Rouge National Urban Park in Toronto, the federal government has initiated a process to create six new national urban parks across Canada in the next few years. Provinces like Ontario, which have traditionally stayed away from pursuing provincial parks in cities, have also committed to new urban parks. Park People has been excited to partner with governments and support these game-changing efforts.
Park People didn’t invent community involvement in parks — there were people across Canada doing that long before 2011. But we played a critical role by bringing them together, amplifying their voices, sharing their successes, inspiring others, and most fundamentally, making it easier for them to unlock resources and address barriers so that they can make their parks more vibrant and their neighbourhoods stronger.
The last 13 years have seen incredibly positive changes in Canada’s urban park system. I’m proud to say that Park People has played an important role in advancing these developments.