Contributing to Canada’s coolest new park

Rouge National Urban Park in Toronto is Canada’s first national urban park. It’s also one of the largest in the world, spanning nearly 80 square kilometres. Located on the traditional territories of a number of First Nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, it features an impressive variety of landscapes and activities and is home to around 10,000 years of human history.

While it might seem as if there’s not much to a park other than nature and wildlife, assembling this national treasure and turning it into an accessible and protected site was a major undertaking, involving many stakeholders. Taking care of the park, both now and into the future, is also a monumental task, requiring continued engagement and consultation with these and other partners.

Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) has assisted Parks Canada with key requirements.

Read on to learn about our part in the story of the park.

Putting together the park: Measuring, mapping and mitigating risks

The park was established by adding hundreds of parcels of land, granted by federal, provincial and municipal stakeholders, to the existing regional Rouge Park, which almost doubled in size. Nothing physically moved, but the effort behind the scenes was significant. PSPC provided a number of services in connection with the transfer of administration and control of the lands to Parks Canada.

“One of my team’s roles was to prepare legal descriptions of many of these parcels of land, with important details, such as whether the land is vacant or developed,” explains John D’Amico, a PSPC expert in the field of geomatics, which revolves around gathering and analyzing spatial information.

In some cases, land surveys were completed to trace or verify property boundaries. D’Amico and his colleagues also researched property titles to support ownership transfers and new deed registrations. “Another of our responsibilities was to prepare maps of the new park,” he notes. “So we looked at available maps and engaged specialists to fly over the area to capture live data, and we combined both.”

The biggest challenge was that the project comprised such huge swathes of land. “We weren’t dealing with a handful of properties, but hectares upon hectares. It was a vast amount of work for everyone.”

A similar challenge faced PSPC’s environmental team, which was asked to assess the environmental condition of the lands intended for the new park prior to the transfer. “Typically, we do a standard Environmental Site Assessment, known as a phase 1 assessment. But to do that for so many properties would be very expensive and time consuming,” says PSPC environmental specialist Stephanie Ciccone.

The solution was to develop a framework that ranked the environmental risk level of each property on a scale from low to high. “We did that by reviewing historical photos and information about the properties from environmental databases,” says Ciccone. “We looked for potential concerns, like if there were oil tanks or a spill of some kind in the site’s history.” Most of the properties were low risk and required no further action. Those in a higher-risk category were investigated further, often with soil or groundwater sampling, or both, to confirm if there was contamination to address. “It was a very effective approach.”

Maintaining the park: Barns, bears and repairs

Since 2015, property and project management services in support of the park have been provided under the federal government’s real property contract with Brookfield Global Integrated Solutions, which PSPC oversees. “The diverse nature of the park presents an array of unique challenges from our perspective,” says PSPC property and facility manager Thomas Mugambi.

There are many types of assets within the grounds, from residential properties and Parks Canada offices to agricultural lands, recreational facilities, trails, boardwalks, cemeteries, utilities, heritage structures and roads. Moreover, a wide range of property management services need to be delivered throughout, including snow plowing, potable water testing and fuel procurement for heating systems, alongside regular project work, such as asbestos removal from aging structures and building system improvements.

But that’s not all. “One of the most exciting parts of my job in relation to the park is that every day brings new and unexpected surprises,” says Mugambi. He recalls that after a bear sighting, signs had to be put up warning the public and, when an abandoned barn was destroyed by a fire, the debris had to be cleared away. “We never know what to expect, and we have to be ready to address any requirement.”

PSPC is honoured to contribute to a site of such significance to Canadians. “When I walk through the park now, as a visitor,” says Ciccone, “I can’t believe my colleagues and I have such a stake in this gem.”

Learn more about Rouge National Urban Park. For more articles about PSPC’s work, visit Our stories.