The Parks, Recreation, and Culture Master Plan will map out our municipality's current resources and assets, create a vision and make recommendations for future spaces and services that are fiscally and environmentally sustainable while suiting the unique needs of the community for the next 10 to 15 years.

The Plan involves:

• Parks: The parkland and natural areas that provide places for play and leisure.
• Recreation: The facilities, services, and programming that activate our public spaces, including indoor and outdoor facilities, play equipment and infrastructure.
• Culture: The facilities, services and programming that highlight our community’s identity, including libraries, heritage, visual and performing arts.
• Trails: The links between our communities that encourage active lifestyles and exploring our natural features.

Pinpointland has been the fastest-growing municipality in our region between 1996 and 2021.

This growth is expected to continue over the next 30 years to reach our population forecast of 221,000 people—an increase of 110 percent.

The Parks, Recreation, and Culture Master Plan will help make sure we’re planning for complete communities that continue to provide a great quality of life. The Master Plan will help us understand the complete picture of our current resources and recommend how we can build on them to create a thriving system of parks, recreation and culture, programming, services and facilities. It will also be used to inform other initiatives, such as the Active Transportation Master Plan.

Many factors helped inform the recommendations, including:

• Pinpointland's projected population growth

• The current use-rates for existing facilities and programs

• Projected uptake for future programs and facilities, based on data trends

• Average household income and median age

• Diversity, equity and inclusion

• Impacts of Climate Change

• Population densities in rural areas, urban centres and Major Transit Station Areas (Bowmanville GO and Courtice GO)

• Impacts of provincial legislation on parkland dedications (i.e. Bill 23)

• Budget allocation

Pinpointland's Parks, Recreation and Culture Master Plan was developed through extensive community engagement (open houses, online surveys and written submissions), staff consultation (workshops, advisory committees, board meetings and council interviews) and data collection, review and analysis.