Skip to main content
Region of Peel logo

Search

  • Provincial review
  • Services
  • Menu

Main navigation (Desktop)

  • Garbage and recycling

    • Collection schedules
    • Community Recycling Centres (CRCs)
    • Garbage
    • Organics
    • Recycling
    • Bulky items
    • Household hazardous waste
    • Yard waste
    Garbage and recycling
  • Water

    • Water billing
    • Drinking water
    • Wastewater
    • Flooding and leaks
    • Pipes and downspouts
    • Conserving water
    • Water meters
    • Water quality
    Water
  • Health and family

    • Children and parenting
    • Seniors
    • Diseases and infections
    • Sexual health
    • Vaccinations
    • Healthy living
    • Protecting your health
    • Inspections and monitoring
    • Business owners and operators
    • Health professionals
    • Health status data
    • Healthy schools
    • Peel Regional Paramedic Services
    Health and family
  • Housing and social support

    • Help with housing
    • Ontario Works
    • Financial and social support
    • Homeless support
    • Find a shelter
    • Housing subsidy
    • Child care subsidy
    • Housing providers
    • Peel Living
    • Housing development
    • Encampments in Peel
    Housing and social support
  • Transportation and roads

    • TransHelp
    • Peel Regional Roads
    • Road safety
    • Regular road servicing
    • Winter operations
    • Vision Zero
    • Transportation plans
    Transportation and roads
  • Construction

    • Current projects
    • Construction map
    • Environmental Assessments (EAs)
    • Work zone safety
    • Watermain projects
    • Resources for contractors
    Construction
  • Business and professionals

    • Business owners and operators
    • Health professionals
    • Early years and child care providers
    • Community partnerships
    • Procurement
    • Housing development
    • Housing providers
    • Teachers and educators
    • Planning
    • Healthy workplaces
    • Infection prevention and control
    Business and professionals
  • About Peel Region

    • Regional government
    • Council
    • Provincial review
    • Finance
    • Public Notices
    • Budget
    • Accountability and transparency
    • Climate change
    • Careers at Peel Region
    • Diversity, equity and inclusion
    • Strategies and plans
    • Advocating for Peel
    • News and media
    • Peel Data Portal
    • Contact Us
    About Peel Region
Region of Peel logo

Main navigation (Mobile)

    • Home
    • Garbage and recycling
      • Collection schedules
      • Community Recycling Centres (CRCs)
      • Garbage
      • Organics
      • Recycling
      • Bulky items
      • Household hazardous waste
      • Yard waste
      • Provincial review
    • Water
      • Water billing
      • Drinking water
      • Wastewater
      • Flooding and leaks
      • Pipes and downspouts
      • Conserving water
      • Water meters
      • Water quality
      • Provincial review
    • Health and family
      • Children and parenting
      • Seniors
      • Diseases and infections
      • Sexual health
      • Vaccinations
      • Healthy living
      • Protecting your health
      • Inspections and monitoring
      • Business owners and operators
      • Health professionals
      • Health status data
        • Sociodemographics data
        • Peel Health Data Zone Information Tool
        • General health status data
        • Health care use data
        • Mental health data
        • Chronic diseases data
        • Injuries and violence data
        • Healthy eating, active living, and sleep
        • Built environment data
        • Tobacco and alternative tobacco product use data
        • Alcohol use data
        • Cannabis use data
        • Opioids and other substance use data
        • Oral health data
        • Sexual health data
        • Reproductive and infant health data
        • Diseases and infections data
        • Provincial review
      • Healthy schools
      • Peel Regional Paramedic Services
      • Provincial review
    • Housing and social support
      • Help with housing
      • Ontario Works
      • Financial and social support
      • Homeless support
      • Find a shelter
      • Housing subsidy
      • Child care subsidy
      • Housing providers
      • Peel Living
      • Housing development
      • Encampments in Peel
      • Provincial review
    • Transportation and roads
      • TransHelp
      • Peel Regional Roads
      • Road safety
      • Regular road servicing
      • Winter operations
      • Vision Zero
      • Transportation plans
      • Provincial review
    • Construction
      • Current projects
      • Construction map
      • Environmental Assessments (EAs)
      • Work zone safety
      • Watermain projects
      • Resources for contractors
      • Provincial review
    • Business and professionals
      • Business owners and operators
      • Health professionals
      • Early years and child care providers
      • Community partnerships
      • Procurement
      • Housing development
      • Housing providers
      • Teachers and educators
      • Planning
        • Official Plan
        • Provincial review
      • Healthy workplaces
      • Infection prevention and control
      • Provincial review
    • About Peel Region
      • Regional government
      • Council
      • Provincial review
      • Finance
      • Public Notices
      • Budget
      • Accountability and transparency
      • Climate change
      • Careers at Peel Region
      • Diversity, equity and inclusion
      • Strategies and plans
      • Advocating for Peel
      • News and media
      • Peel Data Portal
      • Contact Us
      • Provincial review
    • Provincial review
    1. Home
    2. Health and family
    3. Healthy living

    Healthy communities

    We’re reimagining how our communities are designed.

    We're reimagining neighbourhoods where biking to work is more convenient than driving, playing outside is more fun than screen time and key amenities are just a short walk away.

    We imagine thriving communities where fresh, healthy food is available and people have access to plenty of green space and ways to be active.

    This is our vision for Peel. Find out what we’re doing to bring it to life!

    Join our mailing list

    Our surroundings affect our health

    Public Health professionals have known for a long time that where we live affects our health. The design of your community influences the path you take to work or school, what you eat and how often you engage in physical activity.

    Today 85% of Canadian adults and 93% of children do not get the recommended level of daily physical activity. This is mostly due to changes in our modern lifestyle. People work in more sedentary jobs, spend more time in cars and feel less safe letting children play outside.

    Busy lifestyles, the rising costs of healthy meals and the wide range of fast food restaurants inspire us to eat on the go. These changes to our lifestyle and environment are connected to increasing rates of obesity and diabetes.

    To help reverse the trends, we're laying the foundation for a healthier future.

    Today, the health of our residents is a top concern. We think about this when new communities are planned and existing neighbourhoods ae redeveloped. We're working with our area municipalities and developers to create walkable, bike-friendly, complete communities. We want to meet the needs of our growing population.

    We are leaders in understanding the relationship between health, land use and transportation planning. Visit our News and Council Updates page for details on our current work and ongoing support we receive from Regional Council and our municipal partners.

    Our progress so far

    • With our partners across Canada we created new tools and guidelines to help planners, developers, policy makers and public health professionals make more health-informed decisions.
    • Our Official Plan puts health criteria top of mind.
    • We created a Healthy Development Framework that contains tools to evaluate new development proposals, ensuring resident health is always considered
    • Our Climate Change Strategy will help protect our population from the health impacts of environmental change.

    A healthy complete community is one that builds activity into our everyday life. It is a walkable neighbourhood with access to services, amenities, employment, recreation, green-space, social connection and public transit.

    Key features of a healthy and complete community include:

    Service proximity

    Describes the distance between your home and public transit, community services, retail and employment opportunities. The shorter the distance, the more people will walk, use public transit, bike, and take advantage of recreational options.

    Land use mix

    Looks at the variety housing types, services and employment in an area. The more varied the mix of services and housing in a given area, the more complete and walkable that area becomes.

    Street connectivity

    Ensures destinations link well together with safe sidewalks and direct roads. It affects how quickly, safely and conveniently people can move from one place to another.

    Streetscaping

    Refers to the features of a street. This includes sidewalks, benches, bike racks, bike lanes, well-design intersections, trees and attractive landscaping design. It improves the experience, usefulness and safety of walking and biking a given route.

    Efficient parking

    Supports more active ways of getting around, including walking, biking, and public transit by limiting vehicle use. It also looks at on and off-street parking for vehicles and bikes.

    Density

    Refers to the number of people, homes and jobs in a specific area. Communities like this are better able to support a variety of services, employment and other amenities within walking distance.

    We’re committed to enhancing these characteristics in Peel and are tracking how our Official Plan's health and built environment policies support the development of healthy communities with our Healthy Development Monitoring Map. As you scroll through this user-friendly map, you'll see how these characteristics are distributed across Peel and learn more about how they support healthy living.

    Peel Region’s demographic profile will change substantially in the coming years. Peel’s seniors population is projected to double in size between 2021 and 2051 when 1 in 5 Peel residents will be 65 years or older. We need to ensure our communities can support our seniors now and in the future.

    Many of our neighbourhoods were designed around the needs of cars. As our population ages, suburban neighbourhoods that depend on cars create barriers and social isolation for many seniors.

    The things that make communities healthy for the general population - including walkability, close amenities and safe, attractive streets - are the same things that help seniors stay independent longer.

    Our Official Plan ensures that age-friendly considerations are a priority in urban planning and land use.

    Public Health recognizes the importance of community design in addressing major public health issues.

    In the past, our work centred on working with community designers to protect society from infectious diseases. Public health reforms in planning codes and infrastructure were key to fighting the most prominent diseases of the 19th and 20th centuries.

    Public health efforts of that era focused on clean drinking water, hygienic sewage systems, improved ventilation, and the creation of public parks. These are now standard practice in how design communities today. They are linked to improved life expectancy.

    Although infectious diseases can still pose a threat to health today, chronic diseases represent the largest threat to the health of our community. Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke represent the health crisis of modern day.

    Once again, the need to reimagine neighbourhoods is central to how we address the health crises of our time.

    Active parks invite and encourage park visitors to be physically active, regardless of age or ability.

    This is our vision for Peel. Find out what we’re doing to bring it to life.

    Active parks design

    We work with local municipalities, planning and health researchers to create tools and resources to help design communities that lead to healthy, active lifestyles for our residents.

    • Healthy Development Assessment User Guide
    • The Healthy Development Monitoring Map
    • HDA Large-Scale Tool
    • HDA Small-Scale Tool
    • Healthy Development Assessment User Guide for ICI
    • HDA Large-Scale Tool for ICI
    • HDA Small-Scale Tool for ICI
    • Pedestrian and Bicycle Facility Design Guidance
    • Affordable Housing Active Design Guidelines and Standards (2014) report
    • Mississauga Healthy by Design Questionnaire
    • Brampton Sustainability Assessment Tool

    Improving Health by Design in the Greater Toronto-Hamilton Area - GTHA MOH Report

    • Full Report (PDF)
    • Highlights Report (PDF)
    • Backgrounder (PDF)
    • X
    • Youtube
    • Instagram
    • Facebook
    • Linkedin

    Footer menu

    • Accessibility
    • Accountability and transparency
    • Connect to Peel email signup
    • Contact us and chat
    • Holiday hours
    • Local information (211)
    • Municipal information (311)
    • Privacy
    • Programs and services
    • Terms of use

    © Copyright Peel Region