City hall’s Indigenous parks naming saga continues for 9th year

Council quietly agreed to allow fruitless quest to name cluster of parks to stretch on for another year

Published Jul 29, 2026  •  2 minute read

Henry McGillivray fishes at a pond at Don Valley Brick Works Park in Toronto in October 2014. The park is one of the green spaces that was to be collectively known as the “Wonscotonach Parklands.” Photo by Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun files

It won’t be Wonscotonach, but what it will be is anyone’s guess.

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On Wednesday evening, Toronto city council agreed to continue its so far fruitless quest to give a collective name to a cluster of parks along the Don River.

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Councillors had agreed in 2018 to call the green spaces – including Don Valley Brick Works Park, Todmorden Mills Park and Riverdale Park East and West – the Wonscotonach Parklands. However, eight years later, city hall said in a “progress update” that “there is not consensus on the accuracy, spelling or interpretation of ‘Wonscotonach.’”

City council, in a quick show-of-hands vote, agreed to wait until the middle of next year for another Indigenous name, “either historical or newly gifted,” for the park system.

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‘Great initiative’ or waste of time?

That bureaucrats and city consultants had spent eight years with the name with nothing to show for it didn’t merit so much as a comment at city council, let alone a reprimand.

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Councillor Paula Fletcher, who called it a “great initiative” in April 2018, held the proposal back on the agenda on Wednesday. While that’s usually done to accommodate amendments or debate, Fletcher instead allowed it to go to a vote near the end of city council’s proceedings on Wednesday evening.

Earlier this month, Fletcher appeared at a committee to address the Lower Don matter, only to leave that meeting before the vote.

Fletcher’s office has not responded to the Toronto Sun’s previous questions about the Lower Don parkland proposal.

Toronto-Danforth Councillor Paula Fletcher is seen at an executive committee meeting at Toronto City Hall on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. Photo by Jack Boland/Toronto Sun files

‘Lifting up a name’

The progress update recommends council sign off on another year of the “Indigenous-led” naming process followed by another report in mid-2027 “with a chosen Anishinaabemowin name for the Lower Don parkland system and trail, along with an interpretive narrative for public use.

“Discussions over the last year have centred on next steps for deciding on and lifting up a name, including consideration of more recent academic research and ceremonial considerations,” the report said.

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Funding for “continued Indigenous engagement, research” and related work is to come out of parks and recreation’s Indigenous place-keeping capital reserve.

The process is expected to include a visit by the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation — who, per the report, are leading the naming “in accordance with recommended cultural protocols” — to the parkland system this summer.

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City dodging requests for clarification

The City of Toronto has ignored requests for clarification about the parks renaming fund.

While that fund isn’t mentioned in parks and recreation’s 2026 budget documents, an appendix on its 2025 capital budget suggests more than $1 million has been allocated to the division’s “reconciliation and Indigenous place-making program” for 2026.

While renaming any of the individual parks is not being considered, the progress update said a new collective name for the parkland system is expected to appear on about two dozen signs.

An earlier city report, dating to March 2018, said the parks of the Lower Don should have a collective name as they are “connected and contiguous, (but) these connections are not well-known by most park users.”

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