A Parkbus programme, since 2017
Buses to the outdoors for groups who could not otherwise get there, paid for by TD and run by Parkbus with Transportation Options. Last year it carried 2,124 people into the parks.
“Before, in my life, camping was only in the dictionary.”
What it is
NatureLink runs buses to the outdoors for groups who would not otherwise get there, and pays for most or all of the seat. Newcomers and refugee families, Deaf and disabled groups, youth programmes, walking groups, and plenty of others who asked.
Plenty of things can stand between a person and a day outside, and most of them have nothing to do with wanting to go. A car. The fare. Kit you do not own. Not knowing what happens when you get there, or whether anyone in the group will look like you. NatureLink exists to take those away: it gives people somewhere to explore, whether it is new to them or already familiar, the chance to learn a skill and feel steadier outdoors, and other people to do it with.
The outdoors should be for everyone.
What participants tell us
In our own participant survey, 97% said they were more likely to go outside again, and more confident outdoors, after a NatureLink trip. 94% said they had learned a new outdoor skill.
The programme has worked with more than 25 settlement and community organisations to get there.
Recorded on the trips, and published here as they were said.
“Before, in my life, camping was only in the dictionary.”
Sherry, grew up in a village in China
Sherry came on a trip to Rouge Park through her classes at Newcomer Women’s Services. It was the first time she had been outdoors in Canada. She had been afraid of woolly bear caterpillars at home, and was surprised to find out they matter to the place they live in. “If we don’t do the trip, we don’t know.”
“When the seasons change, it’s the same for life, no?”
Luisa, from Colombia
Perpetual summer sounds good to a lot of Canadians in February. Luisa came from a place that has one, and fell for the fact that here the whole landscape changes four times a year.
“Co-ni-fe-rous. It’s very difficult! But I learned it because we saw the trees, and the difference.”
Svitlana, on learning a word outdoors
Svitlana was learning English. A word she could not hold on to in a classroom stuck the moment somebody pointed at two trees and showed her which was which.
“A space to be free.”
Mehroz Ahmed, on growing up in Karachi
For some of the women on these trips, walking somewhere with friends, talking, eating, going where you like, is not a small thing. Mehroz talks about what it was like navigating Karachi as a woman, and what a day in the woods with classmates felt like after that.
The 2025 season
TD paid for it. Transportation Options and Parkbus ran it. In twelve months it put 2,124 people into national and provincial parks across 4 provinces, on 47 trips, and for a lot of them it was the first time.
2,124 people · 47 buses · 4 provinces · 10 community organisations · year one of three
1,342 of those people caught a public bus. No membership, no organisation, no application. You booked a seat like any other Parkbus trip, except the fare was free or close to it.
The rest of it, 782 people, came through NatureLink itself. 10 organisations got in touch, told us who their people were and what would make the day work, and we covered the cost of the bus. Settlement agencies and refugee houses, a Deaf community group, youth programmes, walking groups. Nobody was sold a seat.
22 volunteers gave 260 hours to make those days run, and CPAWS conservation ambassadors rode along on 18 of the departures to talk about the place people were standing in.
The season did something else too. It is the reason we now have a memorandum of understanding with VIA Rail Canada for getting people to parks by train and bus together, and the reason the route network reaches four provinces instead of one.
Our funder
TD NatureLink was developed with support from TD Friends of the Environment, who also provided the funding for the TD Park Express shuttles.
Our partner
We work in collaboration with Transportation Options (T.O.), a non-profit dedicated to advancing sustainable transportation and tourism across Canada. Since 1992, Transportation Options has provided the organisational backbone for projects that make travel more integrated, healthy, convenient and environmentally sound.
Through that partnership Parkbus can offer free and accessible transit options, and help more people reach nature without a car.
Parkbus could never succeed without generous support from dozens of organisations that provide financial, logistical, operational and promotional help. We work with all levels of government, with private sector organisations, with other non-profits and charities, and with individuals. We are always open to new ideas. Talk to us about a partnership.
This form is for organisations and groups requesting a TD NatureLink trip. Tell us who your group is, roughly how many people, and what you would like the day to be. We will come back to you about what is possible and what it would cost.