- Urban parks in Canada
Urban parks in Canada are often owned and operated by municipal governments and so are also called municipal parks.
The ammount of total park space per person and as percentage of total land in Canadian cities varies substantially. Many Canadian cities are located near large provincial and national parks, and other rural areas such as "
cottage country " which also provide recreation areas for urban dwellers but may reduce the incentives for cities to preserve parkland within municipal boundries. Some Canadian urban parks may be neatly tendedpublic garden s remenisant of theold world , but many of the largest are completelyundeveloped open space s.Vancouver has approximately convert|1300|ha of total parks, much less total area than other Canadian cities, but this represents 11% of the city's total area, the highest percentage in Canada.
Stanley Park in particular is convert|400|ha, and features a convert|8.8|km|adj=onseawall . Vancouverites are fortunate to haveGrouse Mountain and other non-urban parks within a short distance.Calgary's current main parks are
Nose Hill Park at convert|1127|ha andFish Creek Provincial Park at convert|1348|ha [ [http://www.calgaryeconomicdevelopment.com/liveWorkPlay/Play/recreation/majorparks.cfm Calgary Economic Development - Major Parks ] ] , but they will soon be joined by another major park. In 2006 Albertarancher andphilanthropist Neil Harvey donated an $80-million tract of land to the city on the condition that it would not be developed. Calgarians also have easy access toBanff National Park andKananaskis Country in the nearbyCanadian Rockies .Edmonton's
North Saskatchewan River valley parks system is a convert|7400|ha|adj=on "ribbon of green" running through the city, most of it undeveloped. The city also maintains convert|4600|ha of grass fields for sports and leisure. [ [http://www.edmonton.ca/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_0_286_221_0_43/http%3B/CMSServer/COEWeb/recreation/parks/ City of Edmonton ] ] . Edmonton is only convert|35|km away fromElk Island National Park .Ottawa has around convert|8|ha of parkland for every 1000 residents, in addition there is the city's Greenbelt which is an area of restricted development rather than that a true park. This compares to only convert|3.24|ha per 1000 people in Toronto and convert|1.2|ha per 1000 people in Montreal. For an international comparision London, England, the city with the largest number of total parks in the world, has convert|2.7|ha of parks per 1000 people and a total of about convert|4000|ha.
References
* [http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/parks/urban-parks.html CBC News In Depth: Parks]
Notes
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