Speaking notes from Green Communities, Parks and Partnerships event
Toronto Congress Centre
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
His Honour,
The Honourable David C. Onley, O.Ont.
I am pleased to be here with you today and to see so many municipalities represented here today.
As members of the Ontario Parks Association, Communities in Bloom Ontario and Landscape Ontario, together you have amassed over 150 years’ experience of greenspace and community leadership.
I commend you for your willingness to place this expertise at the service of Ontario’s communities.
If we take that figure of 150 years, and look back to Ontario’s 1861 demographics, we would see that the province’s rural population easily outnumbered the urban population by 82 to 18 percent.
Today however, Statistics Canada reports those percentages have effectively been reversed, with 85 percent of the population living in urban areas.
This is not too surprising, given that towns and cities are seen as the engines of regional development, offering a broad range of services and facilities, along with economic and cultural opportunities.
But the spread of urbanization, with city cores surrounded by physically separated suburbs and consequent growth in road traffic, leads to a loss of biodiversity and a fragmentation of the natural environment.
In this context, green spaces play a vital role.
They have a direct influence on how both community members and visitors perceive urban areas, how they identify with them and how well social life functions.
Urban green spaces, parks and landscapes also influence economic prosperity.
Their proximity to residential areas leads to increased value of private land, a higher tax base and ultimately many economic benefits to the community.
These include increased local and regional revenue from heritage tourism, steady jobs, and numerous small business benefits.
Park and recreation areas are economic engine that improve the quality of life and make communities livable and desirable for homeowners and businesses alike.
Consequently, urban development is not just about planning buildings and social activities, but also about creating places that have a positive impact on their surroundings.
The design of high quality urban spaces, involving input from community groups, is also an increasingly important aspect of the planning process.
Such places help to define the public life of a city or town, strengthening locals’ pride in their community’s unique identity.
Take a city like Hamilton, for example.
Until recently it was renowned as ‘Steeltown,’ home to two major steelmakers, the producers of more than 60% of Canada’s steel.
As the steel industry shrinks and the city’s manufacturing base gives way to a more diverse economy, Hamilton is gaining a new identity as the “City of Waterfalls,’ in recognition of its more than 120 cascades down the Niagara Escarpment.
And, of course, Hamilton and its neighbouring city of Burlington are known as the home of the Royal Botanical Gardens, considered a plant biodiversity hotspot for Canada.
It has a high proportion of the wild plants of Canada in one area, including many that are both unique and endangered.
By the way, at a time when there is much public debate around investment in infrastructure projects during recession, it is worth bearing in mind that early sections of the RBG were built during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
It was a make-work project which also had the benefit of beautifying derelict and unused land in Hamilton and Burlington.
It is heartening to be reminded that such beauty could be created from so much hardship, sadness, and deprivation.
Landscape architecture is aimed at building better environments for living, by focusing on the heritage significance of the cultural landscape, the restoration and expansion of ecological communities, the character and function of vegetation, and the efficient and beautiful use of materials.
Today’s landscape architects usually deal with land that has already been altered by human intervention.
As rural and wilderness areas decrease and development pressures increase, many projects require unique design skills and expertise to restore contaminated and derelict industrial lands and to redesign and intensify underused urban areas.
As the first Lieutenant Governor of Ontario with a physical disability, I have a particular interest in ensuring that public places like parks be made accessible for people with disabilities.
As you heard when I was introduced earlier, I have adopted accessibility as the overarching theme of my term in office.
I define accessibility as enabling people to achieve their full potential.
According to the most recent census figures, people with disabilities make up 15.5 percent of Ontario’s population, the largest minority group in the province.
Of greater significance is that when the immediate family members of the 15.5% are taken into account, including, spouses, mothers, fathers and children, it climbs to over 53% of the population.
In other words, right now in Ontario, the majority of the population either has a disability or is directly affected by an immediate family member with a disability.
It is also worth noting that it is also the only minority group that any one of us can join, through illness, accident or simply by growing older.
And there are studies indicating that Boomers are entering their 60s with far more disabilities than their counterparts in generations past.
There are myriad studies of the therapeutic effects of parks and gardens for people with disabilities.
So I was delighted to learn of Ontario Parks Association’s province-wide advocacy for accessibility in the planning of public cultural and recreational facilities.
Parks and green spaces provide all those who live in towns and cities with the opportunity to be physically active, while facilitating social interaction.
Therapeutic recreation in natural surroundings can provide an outlet for individuals with disabilities to be physically active, socially engaged and intellectually stimulated.
As such, it can prevent the onset of secondary conditions due to inactivity, improve physical, social, emotional and cognitive functioning, and slow the onset of regressive conditions.
Or, as the naturalist John Burroughs wrote, “I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.”
We Ontarians are fortunate in the abundance of lakes, forests and natural habitats in our province.
Our harsh winters cause us to value such treasures more highly than most.
And, unlike many other countries in the world, they are not reserved for those who live in the countryside, or are fortunate enough to own a cottage or boat for their summer recreation.
Imaginative planning by municipalities around the province ensures that nature in all her abundance can be enjoyed by all, in public parks and gardens, and in the deployment of flowers, plants, trees and landscaping in neighbourhoods, public spaces and streetscapes.
As the Queen’s representative in Ontario, I applaud Communities in Bloom, Ontario Parks Association and Landscape Ontario for your advocacy of environmental responsibility through community projects to increase civic pride and improve the quality of life.
And I commend all of you for coming here today to foster your “green connections” and learn about current trends in sustainable community planning.
Thank you.
