{"id":536595,"date":"2026-03-14T20:46:35","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T20:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/536595\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T20:46:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T20:46:35","slug":"meewasin-valley-and-parks-canada-one-step-closer-to-establishing-national-urban-park-in-saskatoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/536595\/","title":{"rendered":"Meewasin Valley and Parks Canada one step closer to establishing national urban park in Saskatoon"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not a done deal yet, but Saskatoon is closer to establishing one of the only urban national parks of its kind<\/a> in Canada.<\/p>\n

Currently, there is only other national urban park, located in the Greater Toronto Area<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n

Celene Anger, general manager of community services, said the City of Saskatoon has been working with the Meewasin Valley Authority, Parks Canada, Indigenous groups and key stakeholders over the last several years to progress to the third of four stages in the process.<\/p>\n

During Wednesday\u2019s Governance and Priorities committee meeting, city administration was looking for approval on three recommendations, which included endorsing the vision and governance by Meewasin Authority and Parks Canada, approving provisional park boundaries and providing a letter of support subject to the confirmation of federal funding.<\/p>\n

But the debate during the meeting wasn\u2019t without some controversy and push back from two local environmental groups, including Candace Savage with the Saskatoon Swale Watchers and Joanne Blythe with Wild About Saskatoon.<\/p>\n

More than 150 people also wrote to the city to express their concern over what they said were the park\u2019s \u201cnewly proposed boundaries (that could) reduce the amount of protection of the Small and Northeast Swales endorsed by council on Feb. 22, 2023.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letters urged councilors to vote against administration\u2019s second recommendation.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Saskatoon city administration outlined \u201cprovisional\u201d boundaries for what could be one of Canada\u2019s first urban national parks. (City of Saskatoon\/Submitted)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not appropriate to introduce this drastic and harmful revision as a kind of, \u2018Oh by the way,\u2019 without justification, rationale or context,\u201d Blythe wrote in a letter to council.<\/p>\n

Both Savage and Blythe made presentations calling for more transparency from city administration about the future of the portions of land not included in swale areas.<\/p>\n

Coun. Bev Dubois also questioned the adjusted boundaries, noting that city council did endorse the Small and Northeast Swales in 2023 and that the proposal in front of the committee appeared to reduce that.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you talk to us about why we\u2019re doing that? What are the advantages, what are the disadvantages and how we move forward one way or another?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n

Mike Velonas, chief executive officer of Meewasin Valley Authority, said it was about positioning Meewasin and the project \u201cfor readiness,\u201d \u201cif and when\u201d the federal government decides to fund the program, adding that he expected changes to the boundaries in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that we want to designate the Meewasin Valley as a national urban park. Some portion of it. That intention is what\u2019s paramount here. The specifics of the boundary, the nuances of where the boundary is, and we have invested years \u2013 literally \u2013 in nuancing that boundary,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea is that the Northeast Swale will be included in the national park.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the boundary debate continued, Cindy Yelland, city solicitor, asked for a pause in the meeting \u201cbefore we make a decision we can\u2019t back away from later.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later in the meeting, Coun. Jasmine Parker asked Anger about the consequences of not approving the boundaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf council was to not approve in principle or endorse the boundary today, that would require us to go back to the beginning of the process and that could put designation at risk by not having a council endorsed boundary for that designation process,\u201d she answered, noting \u201crefinement\u201d was expected for the city owned property.<\/p>\n

Coun. Dubois put forward an amendment to the second recommendation, indicating that the provisional boundary that city council approved in Feb. 2023 be endorsed, subject to engagement and possible future refinements. The motion passed unanimously, along with the other two recommendations.<\/p>\n

The next stage of the planning process will include public consultations in late 2026 and a public hearing expected in early 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not a done deal yet, but Saskatoon is closer to establishing one of the only urban national…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-536595","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}