Montrealers benefit from a large number of parks, public spaces and green spaces that favour contact with natural features and provide access to sports, recreation and outdoor activities. When properly designed, they help enrich the quality of urban life. In order to ensure an adequate distribution of these spaces across the City, the Ville de Montréal intends to increase both the quality and quantity of its public and private green spaces.

As fundamental characteristics of living environments, green spaces and abundant trees help ensure the comfort and well-being of residents. To this effect, Objective 11 of the Plan underlines the importance of preserving and improving Montréal's green network and presents options to implement a greening strategy in Montréal's neighbourhoods.

Visual and physical access to a waterway is also a fundamental characteristic of many of Montréal's living environments. In many places, the water quality has improved enough that it can now be used for recreational purposes. Therefore, in order to enrich these living environments as well as enhance the value of Montréal's shorelines, the Plan affirms the importance of developing public access to riverbanks for swimming when water quality permits.

In addition, it is important to ensure that the location, number, quantity and quality of parks and other public spaces meet people's varied and changing needs. Objective 14 of the Plan describes a number of design principles that emphasize pedestrian needs, among other things.

Implementation measures

• Give parks, squares and other green spaces a structuring role in the organization and planning of living environments.
• Conserve and enhance natural features in residential projects (see Objective 16).
• Ensure the greening of residential areas, by promoting tree planting, notably in the front yards of private properties, in accordance with the Politique de l'arbre (Tree Policy) (see Objective 11).
• Develop partnerships between the Ville de Montréal and the school boards to work towards the greening of schoolyards and the design of new school-parks (see Objective 11).
• Develop public riverbanks to enable swimming when water quality permits and put in place boating facilities in areas, such as docks and boat launch ramps, where none exist (see Objective 11).