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Bridging the Gap: How the park sector can meet today’s complex challenges through collaborations and partnerships

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:

  • 6 key insights from interviews with park staff and specialists,
  • 9 case studies showcasing inspiring people, projects, and policies from across Canada,
  • Data from surveys of 35 municipalities and over 2,500 residents.

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.

Recording

Panel

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.

Key Insights

Through that process we found six key insights related to collaborations and partnerships:

  • Park budgets are not keeping pace with need.
    • Years of insufficient parks operations budgets are challenging city parks departments and coinciding with a slip in resident satisfaction.
    • 78% of cities said insufficient budgets meant inadequate staffing levels, while 75% said it meant delays in park projects or planning.
  • Residents feel disempowered, but want to engage.
    • While residents want to get more involved in parks, city parks departments struggle with limited resources to provide opportunities for long-term engagement. 
    • 83% of cities said that with limited resources it can be difficult to conduct ongoing, proactive community engagement beyond standard consultation on park projects.
  • Mental and physical health benefits are key, but lack proactive programs.
    • Mental and physical health are the top benefits of park use for residents, presenting a big opportunity for cities to further these impacts with specific programs. 
    • 95% and 93% of residents believe parks play a positive role in their physical and mental health, respectively.
  • Departmental structures can promote collaboration–or disconnection.
    • A minority of cities structure their parks departments with operations and design together, potentially leading to gaps between what gets built and how it gets maintained.
    • Nearly ⅓ of cities said their organizational structure makes it difficult for parks staff to collaborate with other divisions/departments. 
  • Partnerships are critical, but cities need policies and structures.
    • City parks departments recognize the benefit of partnerships, but struggle with the policies and procedures to navigate them with ease. 
    • 61% of cities said a barrier to partnerships with nonprofits was an inability to meet municipal standards.
  • Growing park issues require more training and collaborations.
    • There are big issues facing parks and residents want to see cities act, but to do so park staff need more training and collaborations with other city departments.
    • 92% of cities agreed that in recent years parks departments are facing increased pressure to address issues beyond “traditional” parks issues.

In this report you’ll find:

  • A roundup and analysis of the latest park data showcasing trends and challenges  from our surveys of over 2,500 Canadian residents and 35 municipalities across Canada–our most ever surveyed.
  • A library of nine case studies from across the country featuring inspiring projects that provide tangible recommendations for how to spur action in your own city. 
  • A listing of 35 City Profiles with the latest data from parkland provision goals, to parks amenities, to budgets.

Launch Webinar

For those eager to dive deeper into the report’s contents, join us for the report launch webinar featuring a lively discussion on the report’s key findings and future directions for city parks.  This hour-long webinar will take place on Wednesday, November 27th, at 3:00 PM ET. 

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. 

Key Insights

Dive into the pdf to read about our key insights on trends and challenges in city parks:

  1. Plan for higher park use  –  Preparing for the new normal of a higher baseline of park use
  2. Refocus on quality  –  Ensuring the parks we have are performing at their best
  3. Explore new park typologies and funding arrangements  –  Identifying new types of parks for growing, urbanizing cities
  4. Prioritize public education along with naturalization  –  Growing support for naturalization efforts through public education
  5. Systematize climate resilience park improvements  –  Embedding climate resilience within park designs to safeguard the future
  6. Deepen the focus on park equity  – Moving beyond amenity distribution to look at the social side of park equity
  7. Adopt rights-based encampment strategies  –  Working with unhoused communities to find solutions with dignity
  8. Experiment with flexible designs and policies to manage conflicting use  –  Addressing use conflicts so parks can work better for more people
  9. Increase funding and support for community involvement  –  Supporting community involvement beyond one-time capital projects
  10. Find the internal collaboration sweet spots  –  Leveraging departmental collaborations to achieve multiple overlapping goals

Launch Webinar: Watch the Recording

Happy reading!

How Waterfront Toronto is raising the bar on inclusivity through their Waterfront Accessibility Design Guidelines

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.

Summary

  • Although many municipalities flag that increasing accessibility of parks is a priority, there are still many Canadians who feel excluded from city parks. 
  • Waterfront Toronto established a permanent Accessibility Advisory Committee made up of individuals with disabilities to review the design of all future projects.
  • Incorporating a diverse range of lived experiences into the design review process is critical for the creation of inclusive public spaces. 

Designing for inclusivity and accessibility is top of mind for many municipalities. From our surveys, 78% of municipalities indicated that universal accessible design is a high priority in their work. And while many municipalities look to provincial accessibility guidelines to meet basic standards, our 2022 public survey revealed that 10% of city residents say that insufficient accessibility features discourage them from visiting and enjoying city parks. This suggests that parks are still not working for everyone. 

Waterfront Toronto, a tri-government agency, noticed gaps in existing provincial and municipal accessibility guidelines when designing new public spaces, specifically spaces around water. Some of these gaps include standards around the design of boat launches, boardwalks, beaches and water entry points.

Waterfront Toronto knew that in order to create truly accessible public spaces they needed to learn from, listen to and involve the people who understand accessibility challenges and opportunities the best – people living with disabilities. 

Waterfront Toronto assembled an advisory committee made up of individuals with professional and technical expertise, most of whom are people living with disabilities, to guide the development of their new design guidelines. The guidelines aim to go above and beyond existing requirements and ensure waterfront settings can be enjoyed by all. Notable requirements include standards that all beaches must have accessible pathways into the water and boat launches for adapted canoes and kayaks must be provided.

The process of including community members with lived experience in an advisory committee is not a novel engagement practice. But what really sets this work apart is that the guidelines incorporated a permanent mechanism to include those with lived experience in all future projects. 

The advisory committee emphasized the guiding principle of “nothing about us without us”, and the idea that no single voice speaks for the entire disability community. The committee members also highlighted the importance of implementation. 

Waterfront Toronto’s Accessibility Advisory Committee on a site tour with Waterfront Toronto staff (l-r Bruce Drewett, Pina Mallozzi [WT], Kasia Gladki [WT], Chris Stigas, Roman Romanov, Vail Zerr [WT], Dan Euser, Diane Kolin). Credit: Waterfront Toronto.

One of the ways Waterfront Toronto addressed this was to create a permanent accessibility committee that reviews all future public realm projects and will advise on future updates to the guidelines. This follow-on committee, known as the Accessibility Advisory Committee, is made up of individuals with professional expertise, advocates and caregivers, most of whom identify as a person with a disability, who receive an honorarium for their time. When composing the committee, Waterfront Toronto sought people with a range of disabilities and experiences to try and represent the diversity of accessibility needs. 

For any new parks or public space projects, the Accessibility Advisory Committee is engaged at least twice in the process. The committee provides feedback within the early stages of the design phase to flag any accessibility concerns and again once the construction is complete, with additional opportunities for input as needed. This “roll through” of complete projects identifies any potential areas for improvement. This feedback will be implemented as amendments to the guidelines and applied to future projects, but Waterfront Toronto has also committed to accommodating the feedback at the site when a retrofit or repair is needed. 

The guidelines set out a new standard for inclusively designed public spaces by filling gaps and going above and beyond current requirements, and proactively seeking out those with lived experience to guide projects on a long-term basis.

Enhancing accessibility to blue spaces ensures that everyone has access to the restorative power of nature. And while the implementation of the new guidelines ensures that people with disabilities can participate in these public spaces, accessibly designed spaces are good for everyone. 

“We know that to create a vibrant waterfront that belongs to everyone, we must have a strong commitment to accessibility in everything we make and do. With the support of the Accessibility Advisory Committee we are making accessibility another area of true design excellence.”

Pina Mallozzi, Senior Vice President, Design at Waterfront Toronto

Recommendations 

  • Ensure that a diversity of individuals with disabilities are consulted in community engagement processes as no one person can speak for an entire community.
  • Provide engagement opportunities for people with disabilities to visit physical spaces so they can help identify accessibility-related barriers that may be less obvious in the design process.
  • Involve community members with lived experience as early in the design process as possible to ensure feedback can be meaningfully incorporated into the project. 

Further Reading 

How to better engage with youth in public spaces

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.

Summary

  • A temporary plaza was built in a park in response to a need to create more space for young people to hang out.
  • A consultant, Metalude, was engaged to observe and engage young people in how the space was used through behavioural observation as well as semi-structured interviews.
  • Observations of use are important because they can uncover how things built for one purpose may be adapted for another or how things are used differently by different groups of people.

A typical neighbourhood park often contains slides and swings for younger kids and benches for adults to gather, but what about teenagers? What does play look like for them and what park designs are needed to support that?

This is something that Stephanie Watt thinks a lot about. Watt is a co-founder and co-director, along with Margaret Fraser, of Metalude–a public space consulting firm that specializes in engaging with youth up to age 18 to promote public participation, playable public spaces, and child-friendly cities. 

Stephanie Watt and Margaret Fraser from Metalude. Credit: Metalude.

Youth are very aware of their “minority” status in public spaces, Watt said, and aren’t often invited to participate in conversations about park design. They sometimes feel like they fall into a gap in public spaces where playgrounds may be designed for younger kids and other park amenities are designed with adults in mind. It’s not about designing literal play structures and objects, but about instilling a sense of playfulness in the space itself, she said.

Take the example of a plaza built in Parc Marcelin-Wilson in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough of Montreal. The park is situated near two large high schools and a public survey and conversations with the schools revealed a need to have a “meeting place for young people,” David Sauvé, Development Officer for the Department of Culture, Sports, Recreation, and Social Development in Anhuntsic-Cartierville said. So the borough decided to test a temporary “plaza” structure in the park, also near a bus stop, meant to be a hang-out spot for youth. The structure included multiple seating areas to accommodate flexible socializing.

Parc Marcelin-Wilson Photo Credit: City of Montreal.

Metalude was brought in to better understand the use of the structure. They did this through direct observation of plaza use, semi-structured interviews with youth at the plaza as well as in other parts of the park and even at a shopping mall across the street where youth sometimes go to eat lunch. In the end they ended up collecting observational data from about 500 users and interviewed approximately 50 youth about their experiences. 

Engaging with youth requires a different approach, Watt said. That means switching up what you may view as a “professional” engagement. For example, Watt said sometimes they listen to music with youth during their engagements–something that likely wouldn’t fly at a traditional town hall. You have to either keep things really fun or you have to make them really short, she said because youth often have lots of other demands on their time, from caring for siblings to sports practice to homework. It’s about learning how to “build 10 or 15 minute engagement moments that are rich,” Watt said. 

The engagement was a learning moment for borough staff as well.

“They brought us back to what it was like to be a teenager in public space. Things we tend to forget when we become adults.”

David Sauvé, Development Officer for the Department of Culture, Sports, Recreation, and Social Development in Anhuntsic-Cartierville

The observational nature of the study allowed for the natural uses of the plaza to be uncovered, leading to potential design decisions about a permanent structure. For example, the importance of the social design of the seating, which was arranged in such a way that four to six people could sit and socialize in a circle rather than the typical park bench design, which forces everyone to face the same way in “a long line of strangers,” Watt said.

“The furniture allows for face-to-face [interactions] and the furniture that isn’t face-to-face was mostly used for waiting by people who were alone taking the bus.”

Stephanie Watt, Co-founder and co-director of Metalude

Net structure from the Parc Marcelin-Wilson Plaza. Credit: Manoucheka Lachérie.

Another finding was how the use of one particular structure–a net installed on the plaza–was quite gendered. While boys called it a trampoline and jumped on it, girls called it a hammock. Watt said a design recommendation could be to create two different amenities, one that can accommodate jumping and one for relaxing. 

You can plan for something, but it’s really important to get out there and see how people are using it. And then accommodate those usages–there isn’t a right or wrong usage.”

Stephanie Watt, Co-founder and co-director of Metalude

Recommendations 

  • Ensure the public engagement process is either fun or very short to encourage more participation by youth who may have lots of other things to do.
  • Bring the engagement directly to youth, not just by setting up in the park in a booth, but by walking up to youth and starting conversations directly. 
  • Test amenities and park furniture with well-designed but temporary structures, and pair that with observations and study of actual use so that final designs can be tweaked.

How Mississauga is expanding parkland in a growing urban neighbourhood to meet future demand

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.

Summary

  • Mississauga’s growing Cooksville neighbourhood is already park deficient by city standards and will only see more growth as new infrastructure and transit comes online.
  • A long-term plan to acquire single-family properties, some within a floodplain, was created to expand parkland to serve the growing neighbourhood without reducing its housing stock. 
  • While some residents raised objections, the City has successfully acquired multiple properties through a willing buyer-willing seller approach and has not used expropriation powers.

Cities are in dire need of new park space. Despite that need, however, sometimes funding challenges, environmental contamination, and ownership issues mean that sites slated to become parks won’t actually be designed and built in their final form for several years. 

One of the key challenges of growing cities is acquiring new parkland to serve intensifying neighbourhoods when so much land has already been built on. In fact 69% of municipalities said acquiring new parkland was a major challenge for them in 2023.  A long-term plan in Mississauga shows how a consistent, transparent approach to acquiring existing housing can lead to long-term gains in expanded parkland for a growing population. 

Mississauga’s Cooksville neighbourhood, an area designated as an urban growth centre, is already deficient in parkland according to the City’s parks plan. While the City’s goal is 12 percent of land area for parks within urban growth centres, Cooksville was significantly below that target. With the future LRT and high-rise housing development coming to the area, growth will only continue to intensify, said Sharon Chapman, Manager of Parks and Culture Planning at the City of Mississauga.

The solution is a long-term plan by the City to acquire land within the Cooksville area to expand existing parkland so that it can accommodate more use and different activities. Council approved the plan in 2017, identifying 31 properties totalling 10ha to be acquired to assist in “achieving large cohesive areas of park with continuous trails systems.”

Cooksville Park and Iggy Kaneff Park expansion map, Mississauga, ON. Credit: City of Mississauga.

While expanding parkland is the primary goal, there is a second benefit of the expanded parkland–climate resilience. Some of the current houses in the area sit within a floodplain and could not be constructed today, which might make it more appealing to sell to the City, Chapman noted, since homes with a history of flooding are less marketable to buyers. 

The project is not without controversy, however. Some homeowners have been upset at the plans to demolish housing in the area, saying that they don’t plan on selling to the City. Chapman said she thought some of the initial resistance from homeowners was due to misinformation as well as concern about change. The City made sure to clarify that it was proceeding on a “willing buyer-willing seller” basis only, meaning that expropriating properties is not part of the plan. Negotiations with owners willing to sell are based on reports prepared by accredited independent appraisers estimating the fair market value of the property.

Cooksville Creek sign, Mississauga, ON. Credit: City of Mississauga.

“Our approach has been really a co-operative one with each individual homeowner. We have respected property owners who did not want to talk anymore about it.”

Sharon Chapman, Manager of Parks and Culture Planning at the City of Mississauga.

Commonly, park and housing advocates are pinned against each other as if urban residents need to pick between one or the other. Chapman acknowledged this and said that the City was aware “the project might be seen as removing housing stock,” but she noted it was only a few single-detached homes and not all 31 properties actually had houses on them. “We know that we are losing a small amount of single family homes and the area overall will grow immensely in terms of the new units that come in, so we need to keep the bigger picture in mind to make sure we have the right amount of parkland there.”

To date, 19 properties have been acquired, creating over 8 ha of new parkland–just shy of the 10 ha goal. Demolition happens on a rolling basis so that houses don’t sit vacant and can be turned into parkland right away.

“We’re at a point now that the properties we have acquired are enough that we can now start moving forward with plans to redevelop the park.”

Sharon Chapman, Manager of Parks and Culture Planning at the City of Mississauga.

The City has moved now into public engagement for the parkland, which will include both natural and built features. 

Recommendations 

  • Ensure plans and acquisition tools are explained clearly and plainly when parkland expansion requires the purchase of housing, including detailing future housing expansion in the area the parkland will be serving. 
  • Demolish buildings quickly and turn land into temporary usable parkland before long-term park designs are finalized so residents can see results quickly and concerns regarding vacant properties are assuaged. 
  • Work with conservation authorities and related agencies to identify locations at risk of flooding to highlight areas along waterways that can serve multiple city goals of parkland expansion and climate resilience.

How an inter-divisional collaboration in Toronto is bringing vacant spaces to life

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.

Summary

  • Funding, ownership, legacy agreements and environmental contamination issues can cause spaces slated to become parks to sit vacant for years.
  • Partnerships within the City of Toronto and with external cultural and economic development organizations are helping animate these spaces with interim uses so the public sees benefits now before spaces are fully designed.
  • Interim uses allow the City to understand what works and what doesn’t to better inform future design, programming, and operational decisions.

Cities are in dire need of new park space. Despite that need, however, sometimes funding challenges, environmental contamination, and ownership issues mean that sites slated to become parks won’t actually be designed and built in their final form for several years. 

To address this challenge, Toronto’s Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division is collaborating with the City’s Economic Development and Cultural Division and external cultural and economic development organizations to provide and animate much-needed public space in the immediate term. 

Toronto’s Director of Parks Planning, Paul Farish, said that rather than waiting sometimes years to go through a formal process that includes design and procurement–all while the space remains vacant–the City is “opening a public space that people can access and enjoy and even shape themselves at the front end.” 

He added the City’s Economic Development and Culture Division has been a “very useful partner” because they bring “ideas and third parties who can introduce programming and run events” until Parks, Forestry and Recreation is ready to turn it into a fully operational park. 

One example is a future park space at Front and Bathurst Streets where environmental contamination issues meant it would be several years before the City could turn the land into a public park. In the meantime, the City is working with Stackt Market, which has run a successful shipping container market–North America’s largest–and outdoor event space on the site since 2019. The partnership brings thousands of people to the space for free and ticketed events, provides space for local businesses in pop-up shops, includes food and drink options and prioritizes community programming. 

“It’s a kind of quasi-public space,” said Farish, adding that it’s “important to be flexible and acknowledge that there’s different ways in which a property can achieve its objectives, including public space objectives.”

Parking lots represent another opportunity. Farish said that the City has plans to convert a number of parking lots to parkland over the next few years, but due to funding or other factors they are not going to become parks tomorrow.

“In the meantime, we need to get a little bit creative and bring in partners to animate them and make them as engaging as possible.”

Paul Farish, Toronto’s Director of Parks Planning

One challenge is that people may get attached to the interim uses so much that when it’s time to design the actual park, there is push back. “We’re conscious of it,” Farish said. In some places, the City is floating the idea of putting in a pickleball or basketball court in a parking lot–uses that could become entrenched in people’s minds even if they’re meant to be interim uses. “But you grapple with it,” he said. “It’s less of a concern because it’s still within the range of what was intended to be a public space with some sort of recreational or environmental benefit to the community.”

Phase 1 of the park set to open in the Yonge-Elinton area. Credit: Cty of Toronto.

In Midtown Toronto, a city-owned parking lot is poised to become the largest park addition in the Yonge-Eglinton area in decades, providing much needed public space in the rapidly intensifying neighbourhood. There the City is installing pickleball and basketball courts as well as tables, seating, and other amenities as an immediate “phase one” approach in advance of full park design and construction.

In Toronto’s parkland-deficient Downtown, the City purchased one of the last undeveloped parking lots. As environmental work and park design processes take place, the site has been temporarily programmed as a popular restaurant patio. A known landmark in the city, the property was a part of a design competition that secured an innovative design and approved budget of $10 million.

At another site, along the waterfront, a recently closed parking garage at Spadina Pier is being planned for refurbishment as a site to host cultural and special events in the near term to showcase its potential as a future permanent park. Farish noted a number of local organizations that could serve as programming partners. 

The first was a partnership with The Bentway–the park conservancy that operates a public space underneath a nearby elevated highway–to activate the site as part of Toronto’s 2023 Nuit Blanche. The Bentway’s installation (delivered in partnership with the City) helped to test and build awareness for the planned waterfront park, including art projections on the recently restored 100-year old Canada Malting silos.

“The phased approach helps City staff, residents and partners to develop the long-term vision for the park through temporary activations, fluid programming and on-the-ground experimentation”

Paul Farish, Toronto’s Director of Parks Planning

Lessons are learned during this process about what works on a specific site that can inform future designs and operational needs for the park. 

The approach also provides “flexibility in terms of partnership and operating models,” he said, “furthering the creativity and experimentation while maintaining an emphasis on the benefits of public space and publicly-owned lands.”

Recommendations 

  • Forge partnerships across departments, as well as with business improvement areas, community organizations, cultural groups and social enterprises to animate interim spaces.
  • Work with local partners and residents to ensure interim uses are locally-relevant and build on the strengths of the surrounding community.
  • Clearly communicate interim uses to the public and present the spaces as an opportunity to experiment and help shape a future permanent design.

Lessons learned from Hurricane Fiona in Charlottetown

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.

Summary

  • Hurricane Fiona hit Charlottetown as one of the most powerful storms ever, causing massive damage to infrastructure and tree canopies.
  • High winds caused power outages and knocked down trees, resulting in communication challenges and closing amenities like trails and playgrounds.
  • Protecting against high winds is challenging, but cities can be more prepared through strong partnerships across city departments and with local community groups to be more nimble in times of uncertainty. 

As climate change brings more frequent extreme weather, cities are grappling with increasing storm damage to parks and infrastructure. In 2024, 97% of municipal parks departments said that addressing impacts from climate change and extreme weather has become a challenge. Floods, droughts, and fires all pose risks, but there’s another element that’s caused massive damage in recent years–wind.

Park managers we spoke with in 2023 mentioned increasingly intense storms that don’t just bring higher wind speeds, but winds that last for more sustained periods, causing far more damage. While cities have begun to redesign parks to withstand flooding or adapt to drought through altering planting palettes, preparing for high wind presents a difficult challenge. 

As the Parks and Recreation Manager for the City of Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island, Frank Quinn knows a thing or two about preparing for storms. But when Hurricane Fiona hit the Island in September 2022 as one of the strongest storms to ever land on Canadian shores, it was a different beast.

Hurricane Fiona Damage. Credit: City of Charlottetown

The storm was Atlantic Canada’s most costly, causing $220 million in damage to Prince Edward Island alone. Hurricane Fiona lasted for hours, damaging municipal infrastructure and ravaging the city’s tree canopy. In the Royalty Oaks natural area many old growth trees were knocked down–some 300 years old.

Quinn said the City’s Emergency Measures Organization, which includes senior staff from different departments, met frequently leading up to the storm as well as afterwards. As a smaller city, Quinn said people from different departments are used to working and supporting each other–something that came in handy after the storm. 

“We all had good working relationships, we all know each other. We had a wide range of experiences and expertise.” They were able to draw on each other’s knowledge of internal staff expertise, but also contractors who could be brought on to help. 

Public safety and clean-up were top priority, but Quinn was also cognizant that “once you’re in the house for a couple days, you want to get out.” His team assessed every playground within the first couple of days as well as inspected trail systems, posting notices about what was closed and what was open for use. 

Without power, communication was a challenge, Quinn said. As the city cleared trails and re-opened amenities like playgrounds, they posted messages on the city’s website and used the media. But the key to public messaging was working with community organizations, like church groups, to pass information along to city residents.

The City is now building redundancies into systems and creating more back-up services. One big issue during the storm was fuel, Quinn said. While staff had fueled up machinery and vehicles prior to the storm arriving, when they needed to be refueled there were issues because the main fuel depot did not have a back-up generator on site.

“We dealt with smaller storms before where there were power outages for a day or two, but when you have a storm and sections of the City doesn’t have power for two weeks, this creates several issues and challenges,” such as where to get fuel.

Franck Quinn, Parks and Recreation Manager for the City of Charlottetown.

Quinn said the City has learned lessons from the experience of Fiona and has already begun to prepare for the next storm. “We’re building new infrastructure and making it more resilient so that it can stand up to higher winds,” he said. The City also purchased new equipment that can be used for cleaning up trees, but can also be adapted for other day-to-day uses like grading trails.

Recommendations 

  • Create memorandums of understanding with local organizations and groups on what resources and assistance they can offer during and after storms (like communications help), but be sure to review yearly to keep things current.
  • Ensure communication strategies that relay critical safety messages to residents as well as the closure or opening of park amenities like trails and playgrounds include methods of communication that work if the power is out, such as physically posted messages and leveraging community organization networks.
  • Build redundancy into systems (e.g, generators) and ensure you have enough fuel to operate machinery for tree removals and trail clearing even if fuel pumps are down due to sustained power outages. 

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.

Source: Toronto Park Summit. Toronto, 2012

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.

Source: First Park People work retreat, Ontario, 2022

Yes, Park People has grown and thrived — but what has this meant for parks in Canada?

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:

Parks have become our communal backyards

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.

Source: Clean Toronto Together and Trees Across Toronto, Toronto, 2013

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.

Parks are no longer seen as “nice-to-have” amenities but essential urban infrastructure

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.

Source: Park Summit, Toronto, 2015

Equitable access is now central to park planning

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.

Source: Weston Family Parks Challenge, Toronto, 2014

City parks can support reconciliation

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.


Parks are acknowledged as key components of urban resilience to climate change

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.

Source: Park People staff at a Global Climate Strike, Toronto, 2019

Underused spaces are becoming great parks

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. 

Source: Park People staff at The Meadoway multi-use trail tour, Toronto, 2024

Working for a city parks department has gotten more challenging but also more rewarding

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.

Source: Second National Park People Conference, Montreal, 2019

Parks department budgets are falling behind

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.


Solutions lie in collaboration

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.

Nurturing Relationships & Reciprocity: How collaboration, mindfulness, and power-sharing in parks can help nurture and repair relationships between ourselves, our communities, and the wider natural world

Park People launches the 2022 Canadian City Parks Report, the fourth annual report featuring the biggest trends, issues, and practices shaping Canada’s city parks. 

In the webinar, you can hear directly from the Canadian City Parks Report authors—Adri Stark, Emily Riddle, and Jake Tobin Garrett and get the inside track on:

  • The latest park data gathered from 30 cities across Canada,
  • New insights from a survey of  3,000+ Canadians, 
  • Leading park practices derived from 30 + expert interviews,
  • In-depth stories on nurturing and repairing relationships between ourselves, our communities, and the wider natural world.

The session features an in-depth discussion moderated by Park People Board Chair Zahra Ebrahim. The webinar is held in English; French subtitles are available.