Daniel Fusca is an urban planner, process designer, and seasoned engagement strategist who has built his career on the belief that meaningful participation strengthens democracy and improves outcomes. A dedicated civil servant, Daniel is passionate about deliberative processes and the promise they hold for democratic renewal. Since establishing the Toronto Planning Review Panel in 2015—perhaps the first deliberative citizen’s assembly embedded in a municipal government in Canada—he has continued to innovate with engagement and deliberation across a range of contexts and scales.
In 2019, Daniel became the first Manager of Public Consultation for Toronto’s Parks and Recreation Division, where he has built an engagement practice from the ground up. Under his leadership, the team has grown into a centre of excellence within the municipal public service, engaging more than 200,000 Torontonians on projects ranging from the development of park master plans to the design of brand-new parks and community recreation centres. The practice prioritizes trust-building, inclusion, and thoughtful deliberation over one-off transactions, and many processes include sortition-based and deliberative elements— ensuring that community insights derived from representative mini-publics influence both design and decision-making.
Also in this role, Daniel has worked to foster stronger relationships with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities and rights-holders like the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, and the advancement of more respectful, sustained, and reciprocal approaches to Indigenous engagement and placekeeping has been a priority for him and his team.
Daniel is a trained facilitator and Partnership Broker, a frequent speaker at conferences across North America and Europe, and a sessional instructor at the University of Toronto and Toronto Metropolitan University. Daniel holds an MSc in Planning from the University of Toronto and a BA from McGill University in Urban Systems and Italian Civilization.