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Once we complete construction on the Port Lands Flood Protection project in 2025, a new river valley will run through the Port Lands, creating a new island called Ookwemin Minising. The new river’s natural landscape will become home to diverse plants and wildlife. Land that was once unusable and under the threat of flooding will be ready to transform into complete communities and thriving businesses.
Any development that takes place will be guided by the Port Lands Planning Framework, approved by Toronto City Council in 2017, and the Villiers Island Precinct Plan, which was updated in 2024.
Planning initiatives for the Port Lands have been underway for over a decade, and have resulted in not only the Planning Framework, but a number of other key studies and plans that will guide development.
For the latest information on development of the new Island, visit the Waterfront Toronto Webpage about Ookwemin Minising.
The new river valley will create what was temporarily called Villiers Island, now named Ookwemin Minising. However, the flood protection project doesn’t include the development of new buildings on the Island, or anywhere in the Port Lands. That development can begin once Port Lands Flood Protection is complete in 2025.
The guidelines for buildings, roads and more on the Island are in the Villiers Island Precinct Plan. The Villiers Island Precinct Plan was adopted by Toronto City Council in October 2017, along with the Port Lands Planning Framework, which sets the long-term vision for the Port Lands. As part of the planning process to finalize the Villiers Island Precinct Plan, we collaborated with the City of Toronto to consult the public. The precinct plan was updated in 2024.
The design work underway does consider parks, public spaces and roads on the Island to make sure what we build as part of Port Lands Flood Protection works as part of the larger, future system of parks in the Port Lands. It doesn’t deal with any new buildings. Find out more about what we are building as part of Port Lands Flood Protection.
The naturalized areas already exist in the Port Lands are staying untouched. Spaces like Tommy Thompson Park and Cherry Beach aren’t within this project area – they’re important habitat for wildlife and natural spaces for people to explore. You can see the area of the Port Lands we’re transforming on the project map.
Port Lands Flood Protection is about protecting against flooding from the Don River, which is separate from possible effects of high lake levels. When we began detailed design, we based our flood modelling on provincial guidelines to protect the Port Lands and surrounding area from flooding in the event of a Regulatory Storm. The Province of Ontario defines a Regulatory Storm as the 1 in 100 year storm or the most severe storm to ever hit the region (whichever is the larger event). For Toronto, that is 1954’s Hurricane Hazel. Our design creates 100 per cent resiliency during a storm even larger than Hurricane Hazel. Water levels in Lake Ontario typically fluctuate by up to one metre above and below average lake levels. Because of this, we’re designing wetlands that can survive extremes of high or low water levels. The wetlands will be built at different elevations, which means if water levels go up or down, there will always be some areas available for fish, birds and other wildlife to find food and shelter. This keeps the entire system healthy. In the event of prolonged extreme weather or lack of water due to low lake levels, a monitoring plan will be in place so that we can adapt the system. Hydraulic modelling indicates that that the forecasted increases in the 100-year high lake level will not significantly impact the design flood levels from the Don River.
So, if it doesn’t change the flood risk from the Don River, what impact does higher lake levels have? The Port Lands, in their existing condition, would be at risk from rising lake levels just like elsewhere on the waterfront – unrelated to its location in the Don River’s watershed. Our initial designs for infrastructure like dock walls and underground utilities were done to accommodate the original 100-year high lake level condition of 75.7m. However, due to the record high lake levels that were experienced in 2017 and 2019, the 100-year high lake level has been reforecasted twice since the beginning of the project. The first time the 100-year lake level was adjusted, in summer 2019, Waterfront Toronto adjusted our designs to reflect that new high lake condition. After TRCA’s most recent recommendation that these numbers again be increased to 76.2m, Waterfront Toronto is now exploring what changes to the design are necessary or possible, in consultation with our government partners. We are now reviewing any remaining recommendations and will provide updates when we have that information.
It’s important to clarify that higher lake levels would not result in catastrophic lake flooding on the future Villiers Island. As part of PLFP, those areas will be raised well above high lake levels to address the flood risk from the Don River. The main challenge within the Port Lands Flood Protection project area will be localized run-off and ponding from those future urban lands if lake levels are very high.
Construction began on the Cherry Street Lakefilling Project in December 2017. We started digging the new river valley in summer 2018. The Port Lands Flood Protection Project is scheduled for completion in 2025.
290 hectares of land are at risk due to flooding from the Don River, under a Hurricane-Hazel-sized storm event.
This image shows the area of the eastern waterfront that was at risk of flooding before the flood protection project started:
This project will remove the flood risk to 240 hectares of land. The majority of the remaining 50 hectares of land will be intentionally designed to flood, and they are located within the Keating Channel and the new naturalized river valley system.
Read more about flood risks in Toronto.
Waterfront Toronto received $1.25 billion in equal funding from the City of Toronto, Province of Ontario and Government of Canada to design and build the Port Lands Flood Protection Project.
Currently, about 290 hectares (715 acres) of southeastern downtown are at risk of flooding from the Don River watershed. This includes parts of the Port Lands, South Riverdale, Leslieville, south of Eastern Avenue and the East Harbour development site. Port Lands Flood Protection is a solution to flood protect these lands and enable the transformation of the underused Port Lands into a place where people can live, work and play, while still preserving some industrial uses. This project involves excavating a new river valley and a creating a naturalized mouth for the Don River in the Port Lands. The project also includes new parks, aquatic habitat and infrastructure such as roads, bridges, utilities and transit infrastructure to support future development. The project includes: