Parks & Recreation Engagement

The Municipality of the District of Lunenburg (MODL) is standardizing the maintenance of its parks and trails to enhance the visitor experience within our spaces. One of the council’s priorities for 2023-25 is to Re-Create Parks, by investing in upgrades to existing parks and recreation facilities. The Parks and Recreation Engagement Project is the first step towards the community’s involvement with this priority.

MODL’s investment in parks, trails and open spaces has tangible benefits for the individual and the community. Parks support community and individual well-being by providing space that encourages participation in recreation. Not only do these spaces contribute to the health and resiliency of the community by promoting the pursuit of recreational and leisure activities, they simultaneously preserve the ecological health of the natural environment.

In 2015, A Framework for Recreation in Canada was released; this document provided a new vision for the provision of recreational services. An initiative that was led by provincial and territorial governments, the Framework consists of five pillars referred to as the ‘calls to actions’ to assist with decision-making, management, and delivery of recreation policies and practices. The Framework is nationally regarded as a guide for public recreation providers and has been adopted by Nova Scotia Government.

The five pillars of the Framework for Recreation[1]:

We at MODL strive to support and encourage our community to include recreation in their daily lives by maintaining public access to our parks and trails. In 2022 MODL published the "Active Living Strategy", outlining our goals to increase the level of physical activity in our municipality. MODL “is committed to improving opportunities and creating supportive environments for physical activity and movement”[2]. In early 2023 council adopted “The Parks and Open Space Standards and Guidelines”, this document defines the basic standards for each of our parks and trails. Supporting our goal of improving the visitor experience within our spaces.

In align with the goals outlined in the Active Living Strategy MODL strives to better support community engagement in our parks. Through your feedback, we want to learn:

1. How visitors are using our parks and trails.
2. How MODL can better server the community while in these spaces.

We want to encourage more use of the parks and trails, and to have the information to make decisions that will enhance the visitors over all experience.

What will the data be used for:

Through the data collected via online and in-person surveys we hope to gain a greater understanding of how people are using our parks. We also want to hear how well each park is meeting user needs. This information will enable MODL to make informed decisions and better serve community members. It will also provide feedback on what changes can be made to best adapt and reach the boarder community.