It falls under the responsibility and mandate of the province's Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.

Until recently, Ontario Parks as a whole was under the mandate of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF).

1954 – Ontario still has only eight provincial parks: Algonquin, Quetico, Long Point, Rondeau, Presqu'ile, Ipperwash, Lake Superior and Sibley (now known as Sleeping Giant).

This heralds a new and aggressive program to create more parks, primarily on the Great Lake and northern tourism highways.

1967 – Ontario introduces a new policy that divides parks into specific categories, or classes, with compatible sets of uses.

1970 – Polar Bear, Ontario's largest provincial park at 24,000 square kilometres, is created.

1993 – Ontario celebrates the centennial of the provincial parks system and Algonquin's 100th anniversary.

2001 – Ontario now has a total of 280 provincial parks encompassing 7.1 million hectares or almost nine per cent of the province's area.