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Sheila Boudreau

Contract Lecturer
EducationRPP, OALA, CSLA, BA, BLA, MA
Areas of ExpertiseUrban planning; Urban design; Landscape architecture.

Sheila Boudreau, OALA, APALA, CSLA, RPP/OPPI, MCIP, BA, BLA, MA, is the principal landscape architect + planner at SpruceLab Inc., a Toronto-based transdisciplinary planning and landscape architecture firm (WBE (external link)  certified diversity supplier). She has over 28 years of experience, and established SpruceLab to be collaborative and nature-based with a community focus, and to prioritize Indigenous voices and honour her Mi’kmaq ancestors in this work. Her past experience includes senior landscape architect at Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, urban designer at City of Toronto, and landscape architect at DTAH. She was also a 2022 Niagara Biennial Design Awards jury member, sits on the Board of Directors for the Landscape Architecture Canada Foundation, and the Board of Advisors for Toronto Metropolitan University’s (TMU) Urban Water Research Centre and Urban Farm Living Lab. A sessional professor, she has taught about planning and design at TMU since 2017, and previously, University of Waterloo, and University of Toronto.

Teaching interests:

  • Environmental design
  • Urban design
  • Landscape architecture 
  • Green infrastructure
  • Community planning
  • Social impact

Teaching responsibilities:

  • PLE 745 - 011 Green/Natural Infrastructure (Winter 2023)

Research interests:

  • Indigenous place-based planning, design and programs
  • Green infrastructure in urban design
  • Transdisciplinary planning and design
  • Storytelling in planning and design

Research projects:

Project: Connecting Indigenous Placemakers: Toronto and Aotearoa New Zealand retreat (collaborator / participant; Sept. 2019). University of Toronto and Mississaugas of the Credit First Nations. Funded by: Social Sciences and Humanities Council.

Project: 2019 case study to document Nikibii Dawadinna Giigwag / Indigenous youth program, to inform future funding programs for similar interdisciplinary youth training initiatives (initiated / advisor). Led by Toronto Region Conservation Authority. Funded by: Cool Communities, Climate Change and Innovation Bureau, Health Canada.

Project: Ecological Design Lab 'Safe Passage: Towards an Integrated Planning Approach to Landscape Connectivity' research project. Toronto Metropolitan University and McGill University - City of Edmonton project (advisor / participant, 2018). Funded by: Social Sciences and Humanities Council.

Project: ‘Including the Voice of Indigenous Youth in Green Infrastructure’ Initiated and co-lead Indigenous youth summer 2018 land-based, experiential employment/training program at Toronto and Region Conservation Authority’s Bolton Camp Project. With Professor Liat Margolis, University of Toronto (Director, Master of Landscape Architecture Program, Daniels Faculty of Landscape Architecture, Architecture and Urban Design, and Associate Dean, Research), and Fred Martin, Manager (Communications), Native Canadian Centre of Toronto (NCCT).

  • 'Connecting Indigenous Placemakers': Mississaugas of the Credit First Nations and University of Toronto retreat, Sept. 2019. My proposed projects are tree storytelling and mapping for heritage and culturally significant trees, and also the development of a collaborative space for Indigenous-led place-based work (external link) .
  • 'Discovery Gardens' initiative: Initiated the design of 7 garden spaces that will alleviate anxiety in children through plant medicine and play therapy, with partners including Toronto Parks and Trees Foundation, Toronto District School Board, and Toronto Region Conservation Authority. Bolton Camp Project designed collaboratively in summer, 2019, and Albion Hills Field Centre garden planned for 2020. Humber College garden design underway by landscape design students, to be built in 2020.

  • Cool Cities! How Nature Helps Cities Thrive (2024). (Owl Kids Press).
  • ‘The Toronto Green Infrastructure Youth Hackathon’ (2023). In: Partners in Planning: University-Community Partnerships in Planning Education. (Routledge)
  • ‘Conservation Through Indigenous Treaty Revival: Duffin’s Creek, Williams Treaties Area’. (2022). In: A Landscape Approach, From Local Communities to Territorial Systems. (International Landscape Collaborative)
  • ‘Preparing Students for Interdisciplinary Work: Green Infrastructure Curricula at Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada’. (2021). In: Smart Cities Policies and Financing Handbook. (Elsevier)
  • ‘Stormwater Fee Refresh: Roof Tax or a Tool for Social Transformation?’. HTOpinion, Water Canada. (Nov./Dec., 2017)
  •  ‘Green Infrastructure: The Right Way for the Right-of-Way in Toronto’. Municipal World. (Nov., 2017, with Patrick Cheung and Kate Nelischer) 
  • ‘Kayanase, Restoring Mother Earth’. Ground: Landscape Architect Quarterly. (Vol. 39, Fall 2017, with Bonnie McElhinny)
  • ‘Harvesting What We Sow’. Ground: Landscape Architect Quarterly. (Vol. 36, Winter 2016, with Bonnie McElhinny).

  • G. Raymond Chang Outstanding Volunteer Award, 2019. 
  • Canadian Society of Landscape Architects - 2019 National Award, Planning and Analysis / Large-Scale Design: Toronto Green Streets Technical Guidelines. Initiated and co-led the Green Streets Technical Guidelines project: New standards and technical guidance for the planning, design and construction of green infrastructure / low impact development (LID), developed to meet the Toronto Green Standard for right-of-way conditions and other sites. With Toronto Water, and support from City Planning and Public Consultation, co-managed work of an interdisciplinary consultant team led by Schollen & Co., with Urban Forest Innovations, TMIG, and DPM, with extensive internal and external research, engagement and outreach.