Bloor-Annex BIA Parkettes - DTAH, Toronto, ON

Resources for Connecting with Elected Officials

What we want elected officials to know:

what landscape architecture is;
its contributions to the health, safety and well-being of the public;
that the profession is a fast-growing sector; and
that landscape architects are employed in the private, academic, and public realms across the province;

We also want to ensure elected officials and the public at large know the contributions we can make and the issues that are impacted by the work of landscape architects, including:

pedestrian street safety;
flood protection;
improved universal accessibility outdoors; and
protection of natural areas to mitigate the effects of climate change

Key Documents and Messaging

Please see below key documents that may be helpful if you attend a meeting with any officials

How the Ontario Government Can Better Protect our Province- This document outlines the request for a Landscape Architects Practice Act and provides clear examples of the value of the updated legislation for Ontarians.
Why Ontario Needs a Practice Act for Landscape Architects - OALA prepared this two-page document for Attorney General Doug Downey, MPP (Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte) in December 2020 to answer the question “what problem are you trying to solve?”
What Landscape Architects Can Do for Municipalities. Updated July 2022
Ground58 – Impact issue (Summer 2022) has several stories about the impact and opportunities of landscape architects working in and with municipalities.
Parks as Health and Wellness Infrastructure - Prepared by OALA Municipal Outreach Committee, Summer 2022
Landscape architects are already in the public eye. Municipal World is a well-respected national magazine. OALA has been published in the magazine every year for the last four years. See below a list of published articles:
- March 2019 – Transforming the landscape. Five ways landscape architects are enhancing communities across Canada by Jane Welsh and Robert Norman
- March 2020 – Keeping Canada’s shorelines safe by Cynthia Graham
- March 2021 – Parks are the new medicine. How COVID-19 made parks essential to healthy cities by Cynthia Graham
- May 2022 – Designing Safer Streets - Putting People First by Glenn A. O’Connor and Lawrence Stasiuk

OALA has received endorsements from a number of current MPPs including:

Speaker Ted Arnott, MPP (Wellington-Halton Hills) (from 2017)
Progressive Conservatives including John Yakabuski, MPP (Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke), Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks
NDP MPPs including Andrea Horwath, MPP (Hamilton Centre)
The entire Liberal Caucus including Lucille Collard, MPP (Ottawa-Vanier)

Resources for Connecting with Elected Officials

What we want elected officials to know:

Key Documents and Messaging

Links