High Park Dog Committee not happy about policy changes

Along with the approval of new off-leash areas, the city has also approved a number of changes to the People, Dogs and Parks policy that governs all matters regarding dogs in city parks and off-leash areas. While most people have focused on the positive news of the newly approved off-leash areas, not many are talking about the fact that some of the changes made to the policy are not necessarily in the best interest of the dog owners.

As the High Park Dog Committee points out, the new changes give the City the ability to cancel any off-leash area based solely on the opinion of the Parks General Manager. The ability by the public to appeal such a decision has been removed from the policy. The requirement that a dog owners associations be formed for each new proposed off-leash area has also been removed from the policy. While the city says that the requirement of these association was slowing down the process of creating new off-leash areas, the High Park Dog Committee sees this as yet another way for the city to legitimately ignore any public input regarding the dogs in parks policies and off-leash areas. The original policy had established dog owners associations act as communication facilitators between dog owners and the city parks representatives. Under the original policy, these dog owner associations were to be involved in negotiations and decision making. With the removal of these groups from the process, the city no longer is required to recognize dog owners associations and their interests.

The High Park Association names more flaws with the new policy, including vague criteria for establishing new off-leash areas, the fact that the existance of trees or plantings in an off-leash area (things that would make it more enjoyable to use) actually put the area at risk to be cancelled, as well as the fact the city is banning commercial dog walkers from a number of it’s off-leash areas. Commercial dog walkers are now banned from using the off-leash areas at: Woburn, Cawthra Square, David Crombie, Oakcrest Parkette, Wildwood Cres, Hideaway, and Hillcrest, plus two of the recently added off-leash areas at Ledbury and Coronation Park.