MINUTES – PUBLIC MEETING – YOUTH COMMISSION – 9th meeting – November 16, 2024 – 1:03 p.m. to 3:56 p.m.

4.1 2025-2030 Urban Outdoor Action Plan

In order to create the next Urban Outdoor Action Plan, Anne-Sophie Lacroix, from the Recreation, Sports, and Community Development Department, came to consult the Youth Commission to identify the needs of young people. The definition of urban outdoor activity is as follows: Urban outdoor activity includes non-motorized, easily accessible activities practiced in a context of direct contact with and respect for the natural environment. It allows for a multitude of free or supervised activities in a context of entertainment, learning, and discovery. The 4 main orientations of the action plan are presented, and questions are asked to the members for each of them.

1. Develop a strategy to promote the City's and its partners' urban outdoor service offerings. The members' comments on orientation 1 are as follows:

   • Information on outdoor activities can be found on Adogatineau.ca.
   • Young people often participate more in activities linked to school.
   • There is often too much research and too many links to open on the web, on the City's site among others, to find exactly the desired information; it is impossible to filter. Word of mouth is easier.
   • Putting up posters in the street and in schools allows for targeted and simple visibility.
   • Ideally, setting up a Gatineau City leisure application, where available activities nearby would be easy to find without making a long-term commitment in advance, would be a good idea.
   • Set up a calendar where all available activities would be found or an interactive map, on the City's site, with a link for each activity to obtain the necessary information.
   • We ask if it is possible to know in advance if outdoor activities are adapted for people with disabilities. The team is working on updating this information.
   • At the extracurricular level, a running club exists at St-Joseph which also provides a lot of information on outdoor activities. It would be good to use it as inspiration for other schools.
   • It would be interesting for schools to get out of the classroom to give outdoor lessons, but it is not very realistic if it requires paying for transport, as budgets are limited. Mont-Bleu could do it since it is close to Gatineau Park. A classroom was built outdoors in the Aylmer sector; physical education classes can take place in the Forêt Boucher.
   • A partnership would be interesting to go cycling in the park starting from the school.

2. Consolidate and improve the outdoor service offer for citizens and tourists. The members' comments on orientation 2 are as follows:

   • With the climate getting warmer, we ask if it is possible to extend the activity calendar.
   • We ask for more paddleboarding and canoeing in the summer given the popularity of these activities.
   • Young people do not know where to go for their activities; they always go to the same place.
   • Transport is a barrier to going to do activities in the forest.
   • It would be interesting to have an outdoor program on the City of Gatineau website and to be able to register directly online.

3. Improve the quality of the citizens' experience in their practice of outdoor activities. The members' comments on orientation 3 are as follows:

   • Create rallies that could work with QR codes allowing the course to be done more than once.
   • Inspiration seen elsewhere: a thematic trail where works of art have been installed, signs on trees with short texts (fauna, flora, indigenous legend), a trail where a comic-book style story is posted on posts and read as one walks, and Illumi.
   • Install obstacle courses near rest areas in parks, like at the Miller Zoo where there was a section for teens.
   • Create courses that would be interesting to redo, that would encourage returning to the site, to leave one's mark, such as the Granby Zoo which provides the material to build a birdhouse and invites people to bring it back to the site later.
   • Organize evening hikes.
   • Install more bathrooms and showers, which would add to the spontaneity of the activity.

4. Foster partnership with local organizations. The members' comments on orientation 4 are as follows:

   • To interest young people, we must reach them in schools, on social networks, Adogatineau, make links with the Middle Years Programme (MYP), and volunteer fairs.
   • Outdoor volunteering is little known. Many outdoor sites are managed by volunteers, such as the Ferme Dalton in the Gatineau sector.
   • Pedagogical days, weekends, and Friday evenings are the best times to go out and do activities.
   • The Ma place project could work in collaboration with Profite de l’été to include its activities.
   • Returning to paper calendars to facilitate access to information would be interesting.

The next steps for setting up the Action Plan consist of continuing to draft it and conducting consultations. A reflection process will then take place to bring more specific projects to life, and several projects will emerge over the next five years. It is informed that citizens will not be consulted since the action plan stems from the Development Plan on which citizens were consulted. The current consultations are mainly at the level of services and partners. Citizens will be consulted a little later in the process.