Parks and Recreation Departments in Ontario develop Strategic Master Plans on average every 5 – 7 years. The purpose of the planning exercise is to;

• develop an environmental scan of demographics, trends, and current issues
• create a future look at the population in order to anticipate needs; identify any social issues facing the community for example; gender equity, inactivity and obesity, access for low income residents, access for diverse populations, aging populations, etc.
• complete an assessment of the current infrastructure including facility use and future facility and parks needs
• propose a set of provision standards for facilities for example – one indoor pool for every 50,000 residents, or one ice surface for every 750 registrants
• complete an operational review of the department in order to assess the capacity of the department to ably implement the recommendations

There are always significant opportunities for input through the initial consultation process (surveys to stakeholders and community groups, key opinion leader interviews, focus groups, briefs from stakeholder groups, community surveys, public meetings) and the final review of the draft master plan
(posted on the website, public meetings and deputations at Committee meetings of Council).