During the COVID-19 pandemic, residents flooded into Montréal’s parks, keen to find green spaces and places to meet and relax. For many Montrealers, parks are like huge backyards where families and people of all ages can gather, play, walk around and enjoy nature. These public places for relaxation and interaction must be improved and made more numerous, with particular attention paid to the waterfront and the activities that take place there.
a. Ensure that all Montréal residences are within a 15-minute walk of a green space or recreational area;
b. Support Mount Royal Park by demineralizing certain parts of the parking lots of the former Royal Victoria Hospital, by protecting the mountain views, by finding ways to draw residents back to the Mount Royal Chalet, and by linking the mountain’s various institutions together in a network;
c. Implement the master plan for Parc Jean-Drapeau, including the restoration of Place des Nations, Plaine des Jeux and Mont Boullé, and begin work on the Promenade Fluviale du Grand Montréal between Place des Nations and the Jacques Cartier Bridge;
d. Adopt a first master plan for the Grand Parc de l’Ouest and open new sections of the park;
e. Continue redeveloping the Lachine marina by creating a waterfront park integrated into René-Lévesque Park;
f. Protect biodiversity in the Technoparc by expanding the Parc-nature des Sources and by lobbying the federal government to protect the monarch butterfly field;
g. Encourage the transformation of paved schoolyards into local green parks by promoting the creation of school parks across the city;
h. As part of the urban development and mobility plan, hold specific OCPM consultations on the Francon quarry and open part of it to the public as soon as possible to attract residents to it;
i. Begin developing the Parc-nature de l’Écoterritoire de la falaise nature park at the Saint-Jacques escarpment, which will also include an active transportation link between Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and the Sud-Ouest;
j. Continue implementing the master plans for major urban parks (Angrignon, Jarry, La Fontaine, Jeanne-Mance, Frédéric-Back, Maisonneuve);
h. Make Parcours Gouin a truly green and blue corridor designed for hiking and both physical and outdoor activities, linking five boroughs along the Rivière-des-Prairies;
i. Organize activities in local parks by providing recreational equipment and games.