Park System Leadership

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Registration for the 2008 course will open soon. We encourage international participants to inquire now because extra planning time may be needed for visas, scholarship funding proposals, etc. Please direct inquiries to John Good, Executive Director of the Canadian Parks Council, or Alice MacGillivray, Lead Facilitator. The face-to-face portion of this year’s course will be in Nova Scotia, in late September, at the Debert Hospitality Centre.

The 2007 course ran at capacity, with participants working in eight Canadian provinces, one territory, and two South American countries. This is a leadership development course tailored to individuals working with significant park and protected area systems and related lands managed for combinations of biodiversity and human use. The course includes part-time online components before and after the face-to-face gathering.

William Watson Lodge was the site of the 2007 face-to-face portion of the course.

Overview

The Park System Leadership course is developed through the Canadian Park Council (CPC), which is made up of senior public servants who manage park and protected area systems. Leaders in park and protected area systems work with increasingly significant challenges in complex environments. Furthermore, their jobs are distinctive; they may have more in common with managers thousands of miles away than those who work with different ministries down the road. This course enables learning in forums where current and future leaders can learn from each other, and from other experts, across space and time.

Leaders can be found in all levels of an organization. Here we mean persons who exhibit leadership, whether that be through executive, line, advisory, or networking roles.

History and Evolution

Although this course was first offered in 2005, it builds on Canadian park directors’ commitments to learning at national and international levels. In 1970, CPC’s predecessor—the Federal Provincial Parks Council—endorsed the launch of an annual course, which carried on until 2002.

The CPC course has evolved from the FPPC offering in many respects including:

• A focus on current and future leaders in park and protected area systems
• More focus on adult learning principles and techniques such as
  • active participant engagement and
  • application of learning
• Greater continuity throughout the course
• A shorter face-to-face period, with work online before and after the face-to-face engagement.

Curriculum

This is not an operational or technical course. The primary topics, which vary slighly from year to year, are:

• Trends and future challenges
• Visitor management
• Planning and engaging people

These topics are woven together with other themes and activities including:

• The nature of leadership
• Relevance of park systems
• Interdisciplinary thinking
• A current, real-life challenge brought to the participants for hands-on work.

The sessions reference outcomes in this competency framework.

management_competency_framework.pdf (329.29 KiB)

Course Format

There are six face-to-face curriculum days, with online work leading up to and following the face-to-face sessions.

Host Agencies

The host agencies vary each year. The province or territory in which the course is situated collaborates with the local field unit of Parks Canada. The hosts assist with the problem-based learning challenge and related field tours.

For More Information

For more information, contact Alice MacGillivray or John Good.