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Toronto Parks and Trees Foundation
This website has received support from celos.ca through the Trillium foundation.
For the basics, see
- Website & Privacy Policies
- How To Get Involved
- The Role of the Park
Question: Why do we need to fundraise to return longtime programs to Dufferin Grove?
Answer:When city staff launched the NW Corner rink demolition/rebuild and the former rink clubhouse renovation, that part of the park was scheduled to be fenced off during construction. The project was slowed down by the covid-related full lockdowns, followed by partial restrictions. During the two-year hiatus, many park programs were suspended, there was no basketball court, campfires and oven use were prohibited, and signs were posted prominently giving large fines for failure to stay 6 feet apart, etc.
The former park program staff disappeared (all direct recreation program staff are hired and kept as part-time and so it's easy to just de-schedule them). Management staff were transferred to other areas or retired and new management staff came to Dufferin Grove. They brought with them a different understanding of policies or principles of public space. That means that the current rec supervisor says:
NOTE: The former rink clubhouse is listed as a community centre in city documents and will have a full schedule of registered fee-based summer, holiday, and after-school child care as its main function. The drop-in clubhouse focus is gone.
City Recreation budget, 2022
Expenditures: $236 million (gross)
Income: $68 million
Expenditures: $168 million (net)
Financial report for this fund
The Monday of the long-weekend was sunny, high of 25. There were some spare two-by-fours in the storage shed, and 15 minutes after we brought them down, they were in use. Different stuctures rose up all day long.
In the early days, the adventure playground was called the Big Backyard. This was an early program poster, when park friends and city staff worked together.
-- How Dufferin Grove got its sandpit
-- the video of the beginning: The Big Backyard
-- the middle period (2005) history
The how-to slide show
Jutta's park blog
The 2016 newsletter
The maintenance
A small picture gallery