ROUGE NATIONAL URBAN PARK PROJECT AND LAND ASSEMBLY MILESTONES

The creation of Rouge National Urban Park is the culmination of more than 30 years of hard work and efforts by community leaders and organizations to protect this land in perpetuity.

• June, 2011 – The Government of Canada commits to establishing Canada’s first national urban park.
  
• May, 2012 - Parks Canada and its provincial and municipal partners identify proposed park boundaries.
  
• June, 2013 – The Province of Ontario commits to transfer lands to Parks Canada for Rouge National Urban Park via a land assembly agreement. Transport Canada also confirms their intention to transfer land to Parks Canada for Rouge National Urban Park.
  
• December, 2014 – Parks Canada signs a land assembly agreement for Rouge National Urban Park with the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, the cities of Toronto, Markham and Pickering, and the municipalities of York and Durham.
  
• April, 2015 – The Government of Canada announces the transfer of 19.1 km² of Transport Canada lands to Parks Canada – the very first lands for Rouge National Urban Park.
  
• May 15, 2015 – The national urban park is officially established when the Rouge National Urban Park Act comes into force.
  
• July, 2015 – The Government of Canada announces it will contribute additional Transport Canada lands to Rouge National Urban Park.
  
• April, 2017 – Transport Canada transfers an additional 21 km² of lands to Parks Canada for Rouge National Urban Park. Parks Canada now manages more than half of the lands committed for Rouge National Urban Park.
  
• June, 2017 – Amendments to the Rouge National Urban Park Act receive Royal Assent. These amendments ensure that Rouge National Urban Park will have the strongest possible ecological protections, while providing greater certainty for park farmers to continue to provide local food as they have been doing for the past two centuries.
  
• October 21, 2017 - The Province of Ontario transfers and releases its interest in 22.8 km² of lands to Parks Canada for inclusion in Rouge National Urban Park. Parks Canada now directly manages or has an interest in nearly 80% (62.9 km²) of the 79.1 km² of lands identified or committed for the park by all jurisdictions. The remaining, smaller land transfers by neighbouring municipalities are expected to take place in the coming months.

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