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The federal, provincial and municipal governments will each spend $1 billion, for a total of $3 billion, on a long-planned, but underfunded Waterfront East Transit line in Toronto.
Speaking at a news conference alongside Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney Monday, Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said the city and Waterfront Toronto have been working together to design the line for two years.
“This is the critical missing piece needed to unlock the eastern waterfront,” she said. “Generations of people will live in these communities and ride their waterfront transit line. That is city-building and it is nation-building.”
The three-way cost project will see new service for Toronto’s eastern waterfront, including the East Bayfront and Port Lands, by 2032.
According to Waterfront Toronto and City of Toronto news releases Monday, the line will serve more than 150,000 people and connect riders to broader transportation networks at Union Station. It will create more than 100,000 jobs and generate more than $13.2 billion in economic value for the country, the release adds.
In a year-end interview in December, Chow had said securing a deal with higher levels of government for the Waterfront East Transit line was top of mind in 2026. The move also comes after the city opened Biidaasige Park this past summer.
As of 2023, the city, the Toronto Transit Commission and Waterfront Toronto had spent $36 million developing the nearly four-kilometre line that is expected to see more than 50,000 daily trips. City staff and councillors had previously warned that money could be lost if the project remained unfunded.
At the news conference Monday, Carney said the transit line itself will allow for the building of an additional 75,000 homes in the city’s east end.
“While we build major infrastructure, we’re also accelerating local infrastructure projects that frankly have stalled too long,” he said. “Canadians deserve faster, more reliable commutes back home and to our major cities.”
At an unrelated news conference Monday, Minister of Transportation Prabmeet Sarkaria said the TTC will lead construction of the Waterfront East LRT and the province will not cover any cost overruns related to the project.