Canada's National Active Transportation Strategy

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Canada's National Active Transportation Strategy (PDF Version)

Canada's National Active Transportation Strategy (HTML Version)

The Active Transportation Fund supports Canada's National Active Transportation Strategy, which was launched on July 28, 2021. Canada's National Active Transportation Strategy is the country's first coast-to-coast-to-coast strategic approach for promoting active transportation and its benefits.

Increasing opportunities for Canadians to engage in active transportation comes with many benefits. In addition to getting us from point A to point B, active transportation also improves our health and well-being en-route. It is vital to our economy and tourism sectors, and plays an essential role in connected and consistent multi-modal transportation systems that support more equitable, vibrant, livable communities. It will also reduce healthcare costs, noise pollution, and improve air quality. Increasing active transportation will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to Canada's response to climate change.

The vision for Canada's first National Active Transportation Strategy will be driven by the six elements of the A-C-T-I-V-E framework:

Figure 1: The A-C-T-I-V-E framework

Long text description

Awareness: Raise public awareness about the benefits of active transportation and promote its use, including by launching an online website to share best practices, relevant government programs, and project success stories. Benefits are felt personally through enhanced safety, accessibility, health and well-being, and felt communally by reducing traffic congestion, promoting job creation and reducing carbon emissions and air pollution.

Coordination: Coordinate active transportation investments that reflect best practice planning, design, regulations, and standards across levels of government, Indigenous communities, not-for-profits and the private sector.

Targets: Support the adoption of targets and data collection while mobilizing existing data to inform an evidence-based approach to active transportation policy-making and investments.

Investments: Guide the investment of the $400 million fund and other incentives for active transportation projects, and identify areas for financial collaboration with other government departments, other levels of government, and other funders to support good projects in communities across the country.

Value: Ensure that all active transportation investments and policies deliver social, economic, and environmental benefits, maximizing the value and benefit to all Canadians.

Experience: Support active transportation as a positive user experience, particularly for vulnerable communities, by promoting safe and accessible project designs and supporting connections between existing transportation, active transportation or public transit networks.


The Active Transportation Strategy's aim is to make data-driven and evidence-based investments to build new and expanded active transportation networks and to create safe environments for more equitable, healthy, active and sustainable travel options to thrive.