Dave Harvey Email and Phone Number

Dave is the founder and Executive Director of Park People, an independent charity created in 2011 that builds strong communities by animating and improving parks, placing them at the heart of the city. Under Dave’s leadership, Park People has quickly emerged as Canada’s leading city parks organization. Dave has many decades of experience managing environmental and municipal issues in government and in politics. Dave has devised and driven many of the Toronto-region’s most significant greenspace and city building initiatives. Before starting Park People, Dave helped guide the successful campaign for the creation of Canada’s first national park in an urban area, Rouge National Park. He was also awarded a Metcalf Foundation Innovation Fellowship in 2010 and released a report for the Foundation in September: Fertile Ground for New Thinking – Improving Toronto’s Parks.Prior to his Fellowship, Dave served as Senior Advisor to the Premier of Ontario, working to develop and implement the Ontario Government’s agenda in the areas of environment, natural resources, and municipal affairs. He played a key leadership role in many aspects of the Ontario Government's progressive agenda, including the 1.8 million acre Greenbelt and the GTA Growth Plan. He has served on the boards of LEAF and the Task Force to Bring Back the Don. Dave is a regular media commentator on city park issues, has spoken on numerous panels on city park issues in Canada and the US and written on park issues in many magazines and newspapers. In 2016, he was given the Aster Award from the Toronto Botanical Garden recognizing his contributions to green spaces. In 2017, the Canadian Urban Institute gave him the City Builder Award and in 2021 he was given the Award for Community Service to the Environment by the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects. .

Dave was awarded a Metcalf Foundation Innovation Fellowship in 2010 and used his Fellowship to research and write the September 2010 report: Fertile Ground for New Thinking – Improving Toronto’s Parks.

Worked to develop, implement and communicate the Ontario Government’s agenda in the areas of environment, natural resources, and municipal affairs. Played a key leadership role in many aspects of the Ontario Government's progressive agenda, including the 1.8 million acre Greenbelt, the GTA Growth Plan, the City of Toronto Act and the Go Green Climate Action Plan.