Question Period Note: Impact of Urban Parks on the Fight Against Climate Change

National urban parks will support Canada’s major cities in developing local solutions to biodiversity loss and dealing with the impacts of climate change. They will help adapt to climate change and contribute to national and global biodiversity targets with innovative solutions that benefit residents, businesses, and local wildlife. National urban parks will help mitigate threats to infrastructure from extreme weather events, combat urban heat islands, support storm water management and soil quality, and help sequester carbon.

Urban national parks offer significant benefits to cities and local economies, including halting biodiversity loss, addressing climate change, and improving the health and wellness of local communities.
Currently, Canada has one national urban park: Rouge National Urban Park, in the Greater Toronto Area. This park helps to protect biodiversity in densely populated southern Canada and is home to 1,700 species, including 42 species at risk.

• The National Urban Parks Program, launched in April 2021, supports the creation of a network of national urban parks across the country. There are three objectives for national urban parks: nature conservation, connecting people with nature, and advancing reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.
• With a commitment that 15 national urban parks will be designated by 2030, Parks Canada is actively collaborating with local and provincial governments, park organizations, and Indigenous organizations and governments on candidate national urban parks, with sites at various stages of the process toward designation.
• Parks Canada continues to receive inquiries from parties interested in advancing National Urban Parks across the country. At this time, Parks Canada is focusing its efforts on the seven sites for which Collaboration Agreements have been signed.
• Currently Canada has one national urban park: Rouge National Urban Park, in the Greater Toronto Area. This park, which is within a one-hour drive for 20% of Canada’s population, helps to protect biodiversity in densely populated southern Canada and is home to 1,700 species, including 42 species at risk.

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