Queen's Park North is a historic and culturally significant public green space in Toronto, located north of the Ontario Parliament Building. In 2025, the City was approached by the Weston family with an offer to donate $50 million to improve the park, plus additional funding for long-term maintenance and programming. In response, City staff have been instructed by Council to undertake community and First Nations, Inuit and Metis engagement, along with design exploration, that will build on work completed in the park in 2019. The engagement conversations will inform opportunities related to park design, park amenities, Indigenous placekeeping, park programming, maintenance and governance. This public feedback will be collected and included as part of City staff’s report back to City Council in late 2025, which will include a recommended path forward.
The timeline is subject to change.
This section will have information about opportunities to participate in the project.
Stop by the King Edward statue in the middle of Queen’s Park North (110 Wellesley St. W.) to learn more about the project and share feedback and ideas.
Join the conversation! Attend an in-person public working session to explore the project and provide feedback on the draft vision and guiding principles. We encourage in-person participation, but a virtual option is also available with registration.
Take the online survey to share what you love about Queen’s Park North, what could be improved and what opportunities should be explored. Input will also help evolve a draft vision and guiding principles for the park and will directly inform the development of design options in the next phase of the project.
The Discussion Guide offers a comprehensive look at the revitalization process – from the draft vision and design principles to a project timeline and engagement questions. All the key info is also on this web page, but this document pulls it together in one place.
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This project has been classified as an Involve project based on the International Association of Public Participation Spectrum. This means we aim to work directly with the public, rightsholders and other stakeholders throughout the process to ensure that issues, concerns and aspirations are consistently understood and drive project outcomes as much as possible.
Not everything everyone wants will be able to be accommodated in Queen’s Park North, but where things cannot be accommodated, the City commits to explaining why not.
Our goal is that the information shared through the engagement process, combined with the feedback received, will support learning for all involved – the City, the donor and all participants in the engagement process.
Together, we are committed to finding the common ground to make something special happen here.
The engagement process will:
The community engagement process will follow the typical Park and Recreation Facility Design and Development Process, which ensures a transparent, iterative and collaborative approach to designing public spaces.
Through the community engagement process, community members will help shape key elements that guide the final design.
A high-level statement that captures the City, community and donor’s shared aspirations for the park – what it should become and how it should feel in the future. It is a big-picture statement that is meant to inspire everyone toward a common understanding of the project’s overall goals and objectives.
A set of high-level directions that reflect the City, community and donor’s most important values and ideas for how the park should look and feel. They help to clarify the vision statement and guide how the park should be designed by describing the desired outcomes around how the space looks, functions and serves the community.
Big ideas or core directions for the design — such as adding a key feature, improving safety, or enhancing accessibility — that translate the vision and principles into specific physical interventions. These will be developed by the design team using feedback from the public as a key input. In some cases, there may be several different design options associated with each big move.
A single design direction, shaped by community input through the first two phases of engagement, will be presented for feedback. Participants will have the opportunity to comment on the layout, features, programming elements and overall feel before the design is finalized.
This approach ensures that community voices are central to each phase, with clear and meaningful opportunities to shape the vision, principles and physical design of the park.
This phase of the community engagement process took place from March to June 2025 and included stakeholder conversations and interviews to better understand the issues and opportunities associated with the park. Interviewed stakeholders included:
In this phase, the City will work with the community to build a shared understanding of the current state of the park. This includes identifying what is working well, what needs improvement and the key challenges and opportunities driving the need for change. The City will also work with the community to refine the draft vision statement and draft guiding principles that will guide the design process and reflect the values of the community, the City and the donor.
The community engagement activities anticipated in this phase include:
The anticipated outcomes of this phase include:
The draft vision statement was developed by the City, in collaboration with the Weston family. It is meant as a starting point for conversation and may evolve through the course of engagement:
Queen’s Park North is an extraordinary place for people and nature throughout the seasons, that respects the existing beauty of Queen’s Park and showcases excellence in design, ecological stewardship, programming and partnerships.
The draft guiding principles were also developed by the City, in collaboration with the Weston family. They are meant as a starting point for conversation and may evolve through the course of this phase of engagement:
In this phase, the City will present design options (or big moves) for the park that will explore different ways of achieving the park vision and guiding principles, as well as ideas around park programming and governance. Public feedback on the strengths and trade-offs of each option will help us understand which direction best meets the community’s goals.
The community engagement activities anticipated in this phase include:
The anticipated outcomes of this phase include a finalized set of big moves and design options related to each of them.
At the conclusion of this phase, a finalized Donation Acceptance Agreement will be brought to Toronto City Council for its consideration. This is a key decision point in the process that will determine whether or not the City will accept the $50 million capital donation and continue with park design.
In this phase, the City will present a preferred design direction that reflects what we’ve heard so far. This is an opportunity to share detailed feedback on the proposed plan and to refine aspects such as specific design features, programming and governance to ensure the future Queen’s Park North reflects a shared vision and is ready to move into design development.
The community engagement activities anticipated in this phase include:
The anticipated outcome of this phase will be a preferred park design.
Queen’s Park North was officially dedicated in 1860 as Canada’s first municipal park by Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), and was named in honour of Queen Victoria. A historic and cultural landmark, the park today is known for its significant trees and serves as a green space for activities like leisure, recreation and community gathering.
In 2019, landscaping, lawn and pathway improvements were made to improve the park. Community input during the 2015-2019 revitalization highlighted priorities such as winter activation, tree protection, cultural programming, horticultural displays, water features and washrooms. The upcoming project will include these features and other improvements to better serve current and future park visitors.
The park is centrally located in downtown Toronto and connected across the city by the new Museum subway station entrance. The park revitalization will provide a four-season destination park to meet the growing demand for improved public spaces. It will also strengthen connections to recently improved open spaces at the University of Toronto, support the City’s broader vision for University Park and advance the City’s commitment to expanding and improving Toronto’s park system.
The scope of the revitalization process includes:
Additional considerations for the current revitalization include:
Related Plans and Strategies
Previous park investments were planned in 2014–2015, in part through community engagement, with implementation beginning in 2017 and completed in 2019. As of 2025, a new phase of revitalization is underway. The current project is informed by these plans and strategies, as well as new infrastructure and Council direction:
A donation is a voluntary gift – either cash or in-kind – made without expectation of commercial benefit.
To ensure fairness and transparency:
Read about the Donations to the City of Toronto for Community Benefits Policy.
In response to this donation, City Council has directed staff to undertake public consultation on potential park improvements and to negotiate a donation agreement, which will be brought forward for City Council’s consideration in late 2025.
The Weston family strongly believes in the important role that parks and gardens play in shaping stronger, more vibrant communities. They have a long-standing history of supporting city-building initiatives and innovative, sustainable park projects, such as the Evergreen Brick Works, Grange Park, UHN Tunnels Revitalization, The Meadoway and Breakwater Park.
The family has a special connection to Queen’s Park North, as the Hon. Hilary M. Weston, CM, CVO, OOnt served as Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 1997 to 2002. Over the decades, the family has also supported cultural and educational institutions near Queen’s Park North, including the University of Toronto, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Gardiner Museum, the Royal Conservatory of Music, as well as neighbouring healthcare centres like Mount Sinai and UHN.
The Weston family and City share a common ambition – for Queen’s Park North to serve as an exceptional, welcoming and sustainable place for all people, in all seasons.
The project is also supported by partnerships with the University of Toronto, The Gardiner Museum, The Royal Conservatory of Music, The Royal Ontario Museum and other nearby institutions.
