As the weather warms, people in Ottawa are naturally thinking about heading to the park. But one not-for-profit group thinks a trip to the park doesn’t always happen that naturally. That’s why they’re compiling a report to help people interact in parks.

The provincial Ministry of Health has given Toronto-based 8-80 Cities $685,000 in grant money since 2008 to work with communities across the province on how they engage with transportation and public space.

As part of their most recent grant of $289,000, they’re currently assessing Dundonald Park in Centretown and will be filing a report later in the year.

It should be noted there are no plans to alter or develop Dundonald Park and the city played no role in having the park assessed by 8-80 Cities. Rather, the Centretown Community Health Centre contacted 8-80 Cities and asked they include the park in their latest project.

After speaking with reps from 8-80 Cities and CCHC, it became clear this is not about improving or adding infrastructure. It’s about working with people on how they interact with each other and socialize in a park.

“Often people need something to encourage them to engage with their neighbours,” Christina Marchant of CCHC told me. “Citizens talking with each other when they’re in the park. Meeting your neighbours” are just a couple of the goals CCHC has for the Dundonald Park project.

I live near Dundonald Park and can assure you, it is well used. People play sports, sit around and strum guitars, push their kids on swings. There is also a lot of, to use a trendy buzz word, “social inclusion.” Homeless people and the mentally ill sit about undisturbed. For better or worse, you can even drink or smoke pot without facing any push back.

The only real source of friction is that people are frustrated by the uncollected turds of off-leash dogs.

“We’re going to produce a community-led plan for the site,” said Amanda O’Rourke, 8-80 Cities policy and planning director.

Their driving philosophy is “why parks and open spaces are important.”

While nothing tangible is coming out of the project, “our hope is that the community can then use the tools that will be in that report,” said O’Rourke.

Which leads me to wonder what exactly is not being done in this park? I can’t think of much. If you don’t feel included or if the activities you want to see aren’t there, that simply means you should go and create them.

What sort of society do we live in if we need to hand out six-figure grants to help people interact in parks? These things should come naturally to us. There are no barriers to accessing Dundonald Park. If you want to have a picnic, go have a picnic. You don’t need a consultant to broker your use of public space.

There was a time when Dundonald Park was a rougher place. Some people didn’t feel safe going there and others felt it was unclean. But after work from the police and — more importantly — local citizens groups such as Friends of Dundonald Park, the park is now a friendlier space.

The catchment of what constitutes public health grows every year. It’s bizarre that this program would be funded by the provincial government. Especially when each of the three major political parties treat every dollar of health funding as a sacred cow, as if it’s all going to front-line care.

Summer is around the corner, so by all means Ottawa, let’s get out and enjoy our shared spaces. But you don’t need a Toronto not-for-profit group to tell you how to do it.