Program directory · Parks Canada

Access Routes, Infrastructure, and Community Services

Department

Parks Canada

Program code

BGW06 (PCA)

Core responsibility

Protecting and Presenting Canada's Natural and Cultural Heritage

In Departmental Plans

2026-27 – 2026-27 · New since an earlier plan

What it does

As custodian of Canada’s largest portfolio of Federal lands, Parks Canada administers places that are home to permanent and seasonal communities and provide essential resources such as drinking water, hydroelectricity, and support for flood mitigation to other adjacent communities.

The Access Routes, Infrastructure, and Community Services Program supports the management and operation of highways, water-level, and utilities infrastructure to provide critical transportation corridors and access routes, water management and key municipal-like services, and minimize potential service interruptions, asset failure, and associated impacts for Canadians, local communities and Indigenous Peoples. It involves:

• Operation, maintenance, and improvement of National and Provincial highways and critical access routes within Parks Canada’s protected areas and includes supporting infrastructure, snow removal, inspections, repairs and replacement of roadway surfaces, retaining walls, bridges, and culverts.

• Water management and the management of critical bridge and dam infrastructure at all nine heritage canals for the safety and benefit of Canadians, including managing the flow and level of water to mitigate flooding, support hydro where applicable, and provide municipal water at the following five heritage canals: Trent-Severn waterway, the Rideau, Lachine, Chambly, and Saint-Ours canals.

• Leasing and licensing of real property (land and/or infrastructure) for essential services in Parks Canada-administered and municipally incorporated townsites within National Parks.

• Provision of municipal-type services and the management of related utilities infrastructure to support residents in all Parks Canada-administered townsites including services such as potable water and wastewater management, road maintenance, snow removal, and garbage pick-up and disposal.

Source: the department's Program Inventory, via GC InfoBase.

History and lineage

First appears in the Departmental Plans in 2026-27. The data does not record when a program was created; it may be older than its first appearance here, which is limited by the sources (program spending starts in 2010-11, Departmental Plans in 2018-19).

No earlier or later program in the same department has a similar name.

Significant changes in scope and budget

Success criteria

The program's indicators from its department's Departmental Results Framework: the target set in each year's plan, and the result reported the following year. Source: GC InfoBase.

Spending and employees: planned against actual

Spending

Employees (FTEs)

Planned spending, plan by plan

Each row is one year's Departmental Plan and its forecast for the next three fiscal years; read a column down to see how the forecast for one year changed. The last row is what was actually spent. Click an amount for its source. Biggest changes in federal spending plans

Actual spending is from Departmental Results Reports and the Public Accounts, as published in GC InfoBase. FTEs are full-time equivalents.