An artist’s rendering of a possible new playground for Grande Prairie’s Lion’s Park. Photo from a report compiled for the city council meeting held January 27.

By Curtis Galbraith

Community

Potential upgrades to Lion’s Park playground thanks to $950,000 grant from Jumpstart Charities

Jan 29, 2025 | 6:00 AM

The playground at Lion’s Park is in line for an upgrade.

City Staff and Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities will meet to finalize and agreement after Jumpstart said it would provide a $950,000 grant for this work.

Councillor Mike O’Connor says the money would be used to create an accessible playground.

“They chose Lion’s Park out of, I think there were five different parks that were identified, and this one scored the highest and so they are going to upgrade the Lion’s Park playground.”

O’Connor says the city is very excited to have to local Canadian Tire store operators, David Dungey and Lisa Miller, come forward and say they want to help the community.

“I think this is going to be a tremendous asset for the community.”

“They’re going to add handicapped parking. They’re going to upgrade the bathrooms.”

The city’s share would be around $211,000. The projected completion date would be this fall. The spray park will remain in place. The new playground would go on the footprint of the existing one that is now 19 years old.

O’Connor says this will be a playground for everyone.

“Jumpstart is a large program across Canada with Canadian Tire, and so, we are honoured that they chose Grande Prairie and, in particular, they asked our city to come up with some criteria in saying which playgrounds are at the end of life and need to be upgraded.”

“They picked one and this one scored the highest at Lion’s Park.”

The city says the selection criteria included; being highly visible, in a central location, near public transit, having accessible bathrooms and pathways, and being free of drainage issues.

It will be called the Jumpstart Inclusive Playground as long as it is in place.