SASKATOON — The RM of Corman Park is supporting the work of the Meewasin Valley Authority as it proceeds to explore a potential “national urban park” in the Saskatoon region, which will be part of a network of such parks across Canada.
Corman Park councillors passed a motion during their March 25 meeting to sign a letter of support endorsing the MVA entering into a memorandum of understanding with Parks Canada as the former moves towards the designation of a national urban park.
The motion was made only a couple of weeks after Mike Velonas, interim CEO with Meewasin, and Raeanne Kurtz, project manager with Parks Canada, made a presentation at the administrative committee meeting on March 4 about the initiative.
Kurtz first shared some details about the national urban park program, indicating that it aims to create parks in large natural areas in or near urban centres.
She said the program was originally funded through the 2021 federal budget to create six national urban parks by 2025-2026.
Besides the Saskatoon region, Kurtz said there is work being done in the cities of Victoria, Halifax, Windsor, Edmonton and St. John’s to establish these urban parks.
“They’re intended to be part of a broader network of national urban parks ... to share best practices across the nation,” she said.
This work is being guided by a national urban park policy that was published in July 2024 to provide a framework for this new type of park.
“It’s different from other parks that you may be familiar with, like Prince Albert National Park, Banff or Grasslands,” she said. “Those were all established under legislation. This type of park...is designated under the new policy. It’s meant to be very flexible and responsive to local needs and circumstances, and each park would be unique with local leadership.”
Kurtz said the policy allows for a lot of different governance models. In the Saskatoon region, it’s following a partnership model with Meewasin acting as the lead partner, co-ordinating park operations.
She said they have core objectives that form a central foundation for the program, and they’re used to guide their decision-making: conserving nature, connecting people with nature and advancing reconciliation with First Nations and Métis people.
“It’s very important to Parks Canada that each park makes gains in each of these areas, and how’s that done will vary by site,” she said.
Velonas said that in late 2021, the MVA established a steering committee to explore the potential establishment of a National Urban Park. The RM of Corman Park was one of the entities making up that steering committee.
In addition, they also did some early engagement to explore a potential vision, boundaries and governance model for the park, he said.
More recently, the MVA has completed a draft capital and operating plan for the park, as well as a feasibility report that was required by Parks Canada to show they had moved from an early engagement phase to a planning phase.
While the boundaries of the national urban park have not been finalized, Velonas said it would be contained within the boundaries of Meewasin Valley, which is 67 square kilometres in size. Roughly 60 per cent of Meewasin is within the City of Saskatoon, while 40 per cent is in the RM of Corman Park.
The next step in this process is to begin engagement with the public and First Nations/Métis communities. There is no specific target date for that consultation to begin except that it will kick off sometime his year.
“We haven’t done any public engagement on the project; it’s been in kind of a quiet phase as we formulate the key parameters around vision, governance, boundaries and capital, and operating priorities,” he said. “But we are now ready to take this out to the public.”
Eventually, they will develop a proposal that includes feedback from the public and also investment opportunities to refine their operating and capital plan, which will put Meewasin in a good position to negotiate potential funding from the federal government.
When asked what the name of the park would be, Velonas said they haven’t gotten as far as branding.
“Our intention as Meewasin is to retain our brand identity. We have a strong name, good local recognition and significant affinity in the region from people who sort of like and appreciate and respect Meewasin, so we wouldn’t want to lose the brand that we’ve built over the last 45 years,” he added.
