Across Newfoundland and Labrador, municipal leaders are confronting a distinct set of challenges regarding the long-term viability and strategic modernization of public recreation, parks, and sport infrastructure. The province’s geographic dispersion coupled with demographic shifts places significant pressure on local governments, service districts, and Indigenous governments to manage public infrastructure. This task is further amplified by the overarching provincial commitment to transform Newfoundland and Labrador into one of the healthiest provinces in Canada by 2031. It is also highlighted that since the province historically experiences high rates of physical inactivity and associated chronic health conditions, public recreation spaces are increasingly evaluated not merely as leisure amenities, but as essential infrastructure for preventative healthcare.
To support municipal decision-makers in navigating these complexities, CAN Active Insights can provide the concrete information and rationale for supporting actions. As a national data platform that helps leaders in the sport, physical activity, recreation, and parks sector make confident, evidence-based planning decisions, CAN Active Insights is an accessible and reliable tool that can practically be used across the province. The platform integrates data on infrastructure, participation, movement, community needs, and economic impact into one centralized, easy-to-use system, making it easier to find, connect, and analyze multiple datasets in one place.
The allocation of capital within Newfoundland and Labrador requires rigorous justification, as municipal councils must routinely balance recreation investments against competing mandates. Recent engagement sessions for the provincial Active Living Action Plan highlighted critical gaps within the current recreation landscape, noting that many aging facilities lack accessible washrooms and changing spaces. As well, a widespread lack of municipal transit options often prevents residents in outlying areas from accessing centralized recreation hubs.
Local governments are using programs such as the Municipal Capital Works program and the Active Living and Wellness Fund (formerly the Active NL Fund) to address these systemic deficiencies. That said, access to provincial infrastructure dollars is not uniform across the province; recent changes to the Multi-Year Capital Works program have limited guaranteed multi-year funding to the province’s seven largest municipalities, leaving the remaining fifteen to compete annually for support. For smaller municipalities, demonstrating precise community value and projected usage rates through platforms like CAN Active Insights is becoming less a best practice and more a competitive necessity, as councils are increasingly required to demonstrate the quantitative impact of these developments.
The pressure to adapt is intensified by shifting recreation patterns. While traditional, organized team sports remain culturally significant, there is a rising demand for unstructured, year-round physical activities and accessible outdoor spaces. This shift requires existing parks, recreation, and sport infrastructure to be reconfigured.
Eliminating Information Silos Across Jurisdictions
Within the sector, one of the constant barriers towards efficient infrastructure planning has been the fragmented nature of data collection across various administrative bodies and jurisdictions. Steve Martin, Executive Director of Recreation NL, said that bringing information together across jurisdictions can help Newfoundland and Labrador better understand the needs of communities across the province and make stronger, more informed decisions about recreation infrastructure.
“One of the challenges we face is that valuable information often exists in different places: across municipalities, schools, sport organizations, and other community groups,” Martin said. “When we can bring that information together, we get a much clearer picture of what’s happening across Newfoundland and Labrador. It allows us to better understand where the gaps are, where communities have similar needs, and where investment can make the biggest difference. Having that shared understanding is an important step toward working together to strengthen recreation opportunities for people across the province.”
Centralizing this data into one source is particularly timely, given the recent implementation of the provincial Daily Physical Activity Policy within K-12 schools, an initiative that encourages greater collaboration between educational institutions and community recreation providers. By bringing this data together, CAN Active Insights enables small and mid-sized Newfoundland and Labrador municipalities to compare their facility capacities and participation rates against demographically similar communities across Canada, providing a clearer rationale for targeted provincial and federal infrastructure grants.
Quantitative Proof for Public Infrastructure Investments
To support these localized efforts, Martin Sampson, CEO of the Canadian Parks and Recreation Association (CPRA), emphasized that the increased use of CAN Active Insights by municipalities represents an important shift toward data-driven decision-making. At the provincial level, the platform assists policymakers in determining how capital allocations can be distributed to maximize public health returns, while municipalities can use the data to identify specific service gaps within their jurisdictions.
“The recreation and parks sector is at a point of modernization. As communities make decisions about infrastructure and services, we need to understand how those investments contribute to the health and wellbeing of residents,” Sampson said. “CAN Active Insights gives recreation leaders the evidence to make that case, to show how the right facilities, in the right places, supported by strong programming, help people be more active, improve their mental and physical health, build social connections, and create stronger, more resilient communities.”
CAN Active Insights is a by the sector, for the sector platform developed in partnership between CPRA, the Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute (CFLRI), and the Sport Information Resource Centre (SIRC). With support from the project’s technology partner ActiveXchange, CAN Active Insights brings together data from previous national initiatives, including Measuring Impact, to model the broader socioeconomic returns of infrastructure and programming. These models translate abstract concepts of community well-being into estimated indicators, including projected reductions in regional healthcare burdens, increases in civic volunteerism, and heightened localized economic activity.
Movement Data
The inclusion of privacy-compliant, aggregated mobility and location data within the platform offers a sophisticated method for assessing how residents interact with public spaces. CAN Active Insights fosters the move beyond traditional tracking mechanisms such as manual gate turnstiles or trail counters to provide information on dwell time, visitor origin, direction and speed of travel, and more.
In a province characterized by centralized regional service hubs, understanding user mobility is critical for developing sustainable programming. When movement data demonstrates that a recreational facility located in a hub town is heavily utilized by residents commuting from adjacent unincorporated communities or local service districts, it provides a concrete foundation for decision-making.
For more information, please visit www.canactiveinsights.ca or contact info@cpra.ca to learn more.
