Rouge Valley gets $144 million to become Canada’s first national park in a city

As the federal government promised nearly a year ago, a massive stretch of the Rouge Valley will become Canada’s first urban national park, with the help of $144 million in federal funding. The government will mete the money out over the next decade to create Rouge National Urban Park, a 47-square-kilometre green space bordered by Lake Ontario, Toronto, Markham and Pickering. The exact boundaries of the park haven’t been decided yet, but so far the proposed space is about 15 times larger than Central Park and within easy reach of seven million Canadians—a fifth of the country. At an announcement today, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the government will seek consultation from the public and hopes the space will be a “people’s park” (which is convenient, since some parkgoers will soon be taking the “people’s highway” to get there). [Globe and Mail]