Ottawa’s parks and recreation department will not release a road map for the 10- to 20-year vision of the future of the city's recreation services until this June, says city project manager Diane Huffman.
“It’s not a delay. It’s being realistic,” Huffman says.
The master plan was expected to be released in February. Coun. Diane Deans says she expects the road map report in June.
The city has been working with consultants, a volunteer steering committee and special interest groups, and asked more than 18,000 Ottawa residents for feedback on the future vision for the parks and recreation department in three areas.
City staff released three white papers last May, inviting residents to provide feedback on service delivery, accessbility and inclusion, and tax support, subsidization and revenue generation.
The parks and recreation master plan aims to offer comparable parks and recreation services to all Ottawa residents and anticipates potential demographic changes.
Huffman describes the plan as driven by principles and strategies stemming from public feedback.
The steering committee and the city reviewed the feedback in early December.
Ottawa amalgamated with neighbouring municipalities in 2001 and services in the former municipalities were independently structured.
Many parts of the city had different levels of recreational and community services, different ways of paying for services and different means of helping low-income residents access these services.
“The master plan does not mean that the services have to be the same across the city,” says Deans.
Since Ottawa is the fourth most populous municipality in Canada, and is physically the largest, the importance of providing parks and recreation services that fit the needs of its many communities is clear.
Huffman says the public feedback will be used as a reference for the city in years to come.
The flexible framework the city developed is impressive because it allows for adding important services to the plan in the future, says Larry Ketcheson, CEO of Parks and Recreation Ontario and a member of the volunteer steering committee for the Ottawa’s parks and recreation plan.
The plan will include strategies and guidelines for existing and future parks and recreation services that Centretown residents can access.
Centretown resident and former lifeguard Kate Getliffe says she is pleased with the services in her area and impressed the city is looking to the future.
Centretown’s feedback was similar to the rest of the city.
Residents generally focused on how much people really value having a place within their neighbourhood to meet and be active, says Huffman.
Canada's impressive medal haul at the Olympics last month highlighted the importance of sports and recreation policies, such as Own the Podium, says Dina Bell-Laroche, a community representative on the city’s steering committee.
She says the strategic approach to parks and recreation planning is progressive and will help encourage healthier communities involved in sport both at competitive and recreational levels.