Ontario Moves Forward with East Harbour and Four Other Transit-Oriented Communities

Ontario Moves Forward with East Harbour and Four Other Transit-Oriented Communities

Province working with partners to build more homes near transit and vibrant communities

April 12, 2022

Infrastructure

TORONTO – The Ontario government is partnering with the private sector and the City of Toronto to build five transit-oriented communities along the Ontario Line, including one at East Harbour. Integrating transit, housing, commercial space and park land, along with other amenities, is part of the government’s plan to build more homes near transit and vibrant communities, while reducing gridlock, creating more economic opportunities and supporting the creation of thousands of new jobs.

“The Ontario government is seizing a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build complete communities around transit,” said Kinga Surma, Minister of Infrastructure. “We have worked tirelessly with the City of Toronto and our private sector partner to reach this exciting milestone, and we look forward to transforming these communities to include transit facilities, while also ensuring compatibility with surrounding neighbourhoods and creating benefits for families and businesses for generations to come.”

Ontario has signed an agreement with Cadillac Fairview to build a transit-oriented community at the future East Harbour station. The 38-acre site will include the creation of a major employment centre expected to bring more than 50,000 jobs, as well as new residential and commercial space, community amenities and park land. Transit-oriented communities are also being planned for the future Corktown, Queen-Spadina, King-Bathurst and Exhibition stations.

Ontario’s transit-oriented communities program will place more housing, including affordable housing, and jobs at and around transit stations along the routes of the province’s four priority transit projects in the GTA and across the existing GO rail network. This will help increase transit ridership, reduce gridlock, create an estimated 375,000 construction jobs for the entire subways transit-oriented communities program and improve the quality of peoples’ lives.

“Our government is addressing the housing supply crisis head-on,” said Steve Clark, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. “This announcement is a testament to the strong partnership between our government and the City of Toronto. Today’s Minister’s Zoning Orders will help support transit-oriented communities while building approximately 7,000 much-needed new homes for Ontarians and their families.”

Quick Facts

  • Transit-oriented communities help build more housing and commercial spaces around transit to create vibrant, sustainable and complete communities. They also allow Ontario to leverage third-party investment to deliver cost-efficient transit solutions, getting projects built while saving taxpayers’ dollars.
  • The Ontario Line will extend 15.6 kilometres from Exhibition/Ontario Place to the Ontario Science Centre, with 15 stations that will put transit within walking distance for 227,500 more people.
  • The East Harbour transit-oriented community will be built by Cadillac Fairview. Ontario will proceed with an open market offering to select a partner for each of the additional four Ontario Line transit-oriented communities.
  • The transit-oriented communities model has been implemented successfully in many other jurisdictions around the world, including Vancouver, London, UK, Sydney, Australia, Bay Area, California, Washington, DC and Tokyo, Japan.

Quotes

“Building more transit-oriented communities will be good for this city and good for our residents. As our governments move ahead with new transit projects, we must recognize the opportunities that exist to build more housing and public spaces and create places for people to work around transit stations. We will continue to work in close partnership with the Province to get more housing built and to meet the needs of the communities these transit projects are meant to serve. I am confident that together we will be able to increase both transit ridership and housing by providing places for people to live, work and play close to the future stations.”

– John Tory
Mayor, City of Toronto

“Infrastructure Ontario is entrusted by government to create integrated, accessible communities that benefit residents with the kinds of amenities that make them thoughtful places to live, work and play. Toronto is rightfully joining the set of world class cities that emphasize thoughtful development in and around transit sites.”

– Michael Lindsay
President and CEO, Infrastructure Ontario

“This is an exciting and important step towards delivering more transit service within the City of Toronto and will create convenient connections across the region. Integrating transit into these communities will ensure that more people are able to rely on transit to get them where they need to go, better and faster.”

– Phil Verster
President and CEO, Metrolinx

“We are extremely pleased that the province and City of Toronto have reached a milestone agreement, which will allow for East Harbour to become a truly vibrant, mixed-use community. We look forward to continuing to work with all levels of government, our partners and the community to ensure East Harbour meets the evolving needs of Toronto, while integrating seamlessly into the neighbourhood.”

– Wayne Barwise
Executive Vice President, Development, Cadillac Fairview