Project will restore habitats, enhance visitor facilities, connect trails, and strengthen climate resilience
Today, the Honourable Gary Anandasangaree, Minister of Public Safety, and the Honourable Julie Dabrusin, Minister of the Environment, Climate Change and Nature, announced the awarding of a $9.47 million contract to improve Rouge Beach and Marsh in Canada's first national urban park. This investment will help restore habitats, improve visitor facilities and enhance accessibility in one of the park's most popular and ecologically significant areas, marking a key milestone in Rouge National Urban Park's 10th anniversary year.
Rouge National Urban Park is located within one hour's drive of 20 percent of Canada's population and accessible by public transit. It provides unparalleled opportunities to explore a diverse landscape of forests, rivers, working farms, trails, marshes, a Lake Ontario beach and 10,000 years of rich human history.
Together with the recent start of construction on the park's new visitor, learning and community centre, the Rouge Beach Improvements Project reflects Parks Canada's commitment to protecting nature, strengthening connections with communities, and enhancing visitor experiences across Rouge National Urban Park.
The project will focus on:
- a new, accessible 2.3-kilometre formalized trail linking Rouge Beach to Mast Trail;
- ecological restoration throughout Rouge Marsh;
- improvements to the upper beach parking area, including a new permanent washroom facility;
- an improved entrance with an accessible ramp to the new trailhead, beach and marsh; and,
- the decommissioning and re-naturalizing of the lower beach parking lot.
Shaped through extensive Indigenous, public and stakeholder engagement led by Parks Canada, the Rouge Beach Improvements Project will feature elevated boardwalks and bridges to protect sensitive wetlands while providing safer access to the marsh and beach. It will restore degraded wetland and forest habitat, enhancing conditions for native species and species at risk and include measures to address shoreline erosion and flooding, all of which will support the long-term resilience and sustainability of this popular area for wildlife and visitors.
