Parks Canada: Grounded in the Past, Ready for the Future!

Parks Canada has a long history of successfully renewing itself to continue thriving in a changed environment. Today, shifting realities again call for transformation to ensure that our programs, services and organizational structure continue to deliver results for Canadians. Building on our long record of adaptation, we are reviewing how we operate, deepening partnerships, particularly through shared stewardship and building more alliances across teams and within local communities to support program delivery. This approach will ensure that efforts and investments are laser-focused and directed to the areas of greatest impact. Guided by clear principles and a shared sense of purpose, Parks Canada is modernizing how we all work to become more efficient, innovative, and sustainable. This document outlines the narrative and guiding principles that will shape the Agency’s transformation journey. It reaffirms Parks Canada’s enduring values, identity and mandate, explains why change is needed now, and describes how a focused, collaborative approach will ensure long-term sustainability and continued excellence in serving Canadians.

1. Grounded in our past: A Culture of Successful Transformations

Since its creation as the world’s first park organization in 1911, Parks Canada has periodically renewed itself to adapt to its ever-changing environment and remain relevant and effective in the delivery of its services. A major transformational step was its establishment as a separate agency in 1998. Since then, Parks Canada has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to adapt to the changes of its operating environment and to broader social and economic realities by finding new ways of working and seeking new perspectives to deliver on our mandate. This has included the expansion of national historic sites, national parks and national marine conservation areas across the country; responding to the challenges of climate change; building and modernizing both new and historic infrastructure; and embracing digital opportunities to enhance interpretation and engagement.

As stewards of Canada’s natural and cultural heritage, we know that protecting the places that help define who we are, connecting people to them, and ensuring they endure for generations to come, requires that we adapt to our ever-changing environment.

As the world we work in becomes increasingly complex and far exceeds any one organization’s ability to meet all of the challenges before it; Indigenous stewardship, shared leadership, and new alliances for service delivery will continue to shape how we operate going forward. To succeed, we must adapt to a changing climate, protect ecological integrity, ensure cultural places reflect the richness of Canada and find more sustainable ways of delivering our services within current fiscal realities. Change has always been part of our story, and now is the time to advance boldly. Each previous period of transformation has strengthened our ability to protect and present what matters most, and to serve Canadians more effectively. This period of renewal will be no different. Deeply grounded in our past, we are confident that the Parks Canada team will once again rise to the occasion and ensure the continued delivery of our mandate for generations to come.

2. The Drivers for Change: A Complex Operating Environment

Our operating environment has evolved significantly. A range of internal and external pressures are asking us once again to renew ourselves and adapt how we deliver on our mandate.

Climate change is driving more frequent and severe wildfires, accelerating shoreline erosion and loss of permafrost, and increasing the frequency of extreme weather events. These impacts are felt across Parks Canada’s places and communities, and they pose growing risks to species at risk and ecological integrity.

Our commitment to a system of national heritage places that recognizes and honours the stewardship of Indigenous Peoples, their histories and cultures remain strong. Strengthening relationships with Indigenous Peoples remain central to our reconciliation efforts. The Indigenous Stewardship Policy has been adopted to fulfill Parks Canada’s commitments to UNDA Action Plan measures, including measure #95 on governance, and must now be fully implemented across the Agency.

Partnerships, alliances and collaboration with stakeholders, communities and others are increasingly critical in the sustainability of our programming. Through these alliances, we can ensure efficient, adaptive, and resilient service delivery for Canadians. We will actively seek out more such opportunities.

Recent integrated business planning exercises have highlighted new opportunities to strengthen how we work – through deeper internal collaboration, renewed and expanded partnerships, and modernized infrastructure, including digital tools that enhance operations, interpretation, and engagement.

Among all these drivers, there is another one that is setting the pace of our renewal. The Government of Canada’s most recent Comprehensive Expenditure Review, which calls on Parks Canada to strengthen fiscal discipline by modernizing service delivery and focusing on its core priorities. As per Budget 2025, the Agency has to find $75 million in savings within three years. This means focusing our time, energy and resources where they bring the greatest value for Canadians.

3. Core Identity: Our Mandate Remains the Same

Since its creation as a separate agency in 1998, Parks Canada has had many transformations. We have always adapted to changing realities with a view to continued delivery of service to Canadians. While we have evolved and transformed over the past decades and will continue to do so, our mandate remains:

On behalf of the people of Canada, we protect and present nationally significant examples of Canada’s natural and cultural heritage, and foster public understanding, appreciation and enjoyment in ways that ensure the ecological and commemorative integrity of these places for present and future generations.

Our roles also help define who we are:

We are guardians, the stewards of Canada’s natural and cultural heritage

Protecting and presenting Canada’s treasured places and advancing ecological and cultural integrity through science, Indigenous knowledge and stewardship, and collaboration.

We are guides, the connectors of people to places

Fostering deep and meaningful relationships between people, culture, and the land, waters, and ice.

We are partners, the collaborators who help make things happen together

Using our strengths and leveraging the strengths of the communities around us.

We are storytellers, thinking strategically to share broader perspectives on our places.

Always learning, adapting, and improving to serve Canadians better.

4. Guiding Principles for Transformation: How We’ll Lead the Change

On top of ensuring we continue to deliver on our strong mandate, we will ensure we meet the following principles of change:

Principle: Parks Canada team members are treated with fairness, respect, and compassion

Engage Parks Canada team members respectfully. Provide them with timely information. Ensure processes are fair and transparent. Welcome and act on feedback where possible.

Principle: Advance reconciliation through implementation of Indigenous Stewardship Policy

Continue working on implementation of the Indigenous Stewardship Policy and the five measures of Canada’s UNDA Action Plan, in collaboration with Indigenous People. Seek out new opportunities to build new relationships with First Nations, Metis and Inuit, and strengthen existing ones.

Principle: Support local prosperity

Ensure programs and services strengthen local businesses and economies, create jobs, and promote community resilience to create more opportunities of sharing the leadership with partners and interested parties.

Principle: Pursue greater financial self-sufficiency

Clarify authorities, foster a culture of philanthropy, and expand opportunities for revenue generation to ensure long-term sustainability.

Principle: Getting back to basics by aligning responsibilities and accountabilities

Identify legislated or delegated accountabilities and responsibilities for each aspect of the mandate and use them as the fundamental basis for transformation.

5. What’s changing: How We Are Evolving

Every part of Parks Canada is contributing to this transformation. It is about empowering delivery through Indigenous stewardship, shared leadership, and alliances with communities, and other organizations. It is also about working collaboratively with others to enhance service quality, extend our reach, and draw on specialized expertise where it strengthens our mandate.

Building on our history of successful adaptation to ensure continued delivery of our mandate for years to come, we are shifting from a model of broad, diffuse activity to one that is increasingly strategic, focused, and sustainable.

From	To
Broad activities across all areas of responsibility	Laser-focused on the most impactful activities, in the right places, with the right support and guidance.
Providing and managing services ourselves in most places	Engaging in alliances with partners and stakeholders while upholding Indigenous stewardship and shared leadership.
Labour-intensive, traditional processes	AI-enabled, technology-driven efficiency
Reactive revenue	Proactive, diversified revenue generation

By embracing shared leadership both within and outside the organization, Parks Canada empowers communities, organizations, and team members to contribute to a more sustainable model of stewardship.

6. The Future Vision: A Stronger Parks Canada for Generations to Come

Through this transformation, Parks Canada will emerge as an organization that is:

More sustainable, ensuring the continued protection of Canada’s most treasured places.
More innovative, using data, technology, and AI to improve services and conservation outcomes.
More collaborative, advancing Indigenous stewardship and shared leadership, and open for alliances with local communities and partners to deliver to Canadians.
More focused, prioritizing initiatives that deliver the greatest public value and long-term impact.

Parks Canada will continue to be the trusted steward of Canada’s natural and cultural heritage, strengthening our internal foundations and leading outwardly through new alliances, partnerships, and innovation.

7. Call to Action: Everyone Shapes the Story

Every Parks Canada team member plays a role in this transformation. Our continued success depends on focusing on the work that matters most and directing our time and energy to the activities that deliver the greatest public value.

Our history gives us strength, but our future requires curiosity, adaptability, and a willingness to evolve.

Shared leadership begins from within, by empowering each other to bring forward ideas, adapt processes, and co-create solutions then share practices across our places.

We are shaping Parks Canada’s future together. Through collaboration and innovation, we are writing the next chapter in the Parks Canada story; one that future generations will inherit with pride.

8. Time for Renewal: Key Takeaways

Change has always been part of Parks Canada’s story. Thanks to its team members, it has been a successful one. Together, we have always succeeded in adapting, innovating and building relationships to ensure we remained relevant to Canadians and able to deliver on our mandate.

Our mandate does not change. Parks Canada continues to protect and present nationally significant examples of Canada’s natural and cultural heritage while fostering understanding, appreciation, and enjoyment for current and future generations. What does change, however, is how we deliver through greater focus, innovation, Indigenous stewardship, shared leadership, and alliances with communities and partners.

Each period of transformation has strengthened our ability to protect and present what matters most and to serve Canadians more effectively. By evolving how we deliver, we will ensure continued sustainability in the provision of our services to Canadians.

This transformation will be achieved together and allow Parks Canada to be more sustainable, more innovative, more collaborative, and more focused. Leveraging shared leadership and delivering services through alliances means empowering team members, communities, and partners to shape how Parks Canada evolves.

Parks Canada’s team members are the Agency’s greatest asset. We will communicate openly, act with respect and compassion, and uphold our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility throughout the process.

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