Recently, the Carolina Hurricanes arrived from Raleigh to play the Maple Leafs and found themselves in an unexpected situation: stuck in traffic, forced to abandon their team bus and walk to Scotiabank Arena.
Sound familiar? Last year, the Utah Hockey Club experienced the same issue on their way to play the Leafs, and Irish musician Niall Horan had to ditch his tour bus and walk to his own concert.
For some, a temporary hardship for a sports team or celebrity is not cause for huge concern, but it is a sign of a deeper problem. The publicity around these kinds of events harms our reputation, but they also are simply a visible symptom of a daily reality for businesses, workers, and visitors in Toronto.
Gridlock in the Toronto region is more than just an annoyance. It is an economic crisis.
Traffic congestion is estimated to cost the region $45 billion annually in social and economic costs. International companies are choosing to downsize their Toronto footprint or relocate to less-congested cities. Small businesses lose revenue when delivery trucks spend hours stuck in bottlenecks. Service providers like electricians, plumbers, and health care workers lose valuable work time. Tourists, who bring millions into our economy, find themselves waiting in taxis or on buses instead of exploring the city.
The Toronto Region Board of Trade has long championed public transit as the ultimate solution to this problem. Expanding our transit network and making it not only more functional, but more inviting, must remain a priority. The Ontario Line, GO Expansion, the Hurontario and Hamilton LRTs, and the future Waterfront East LRT will play a major role in addressing congestion by providing viable alternatives to driving. The Board of Trade has also pushed for fare and service integration to encourage more people to choose public transit — and we applaud the major steps taken through the One Fare program implemented this past year.
But while these long-term investments take shape, the congestion crisis on our roads is worsening. The City of Toronto’s road network reached capacity in the 1970s. Today, it is nearing a breaking point, and it will take years before transit expansion projects relieve the strain. In the meantime, we need solutions that get people, goods, and services moving on our streets today.
That is why the Board recently released Breaking Gridlock: A Congestion Action Plan for Toronto, a five-point strategy to ease congestion in the short and medium term. The plan proposes pragmatic steps that can improve mobility for the greatest number of people. These include enforcing traffic laws, optimizing major thoroughfares, and reducing unnecessary lane closures that slow movement across the city.
The City of Toronto is taking our recommendations seriously: city hall’s Infrastructure and Environment Committee have asked staff to provide information on how the report recommendations can be implemented by April 9.
We have made several recommendations that must be implemented together to make progress on this crisis. But one action must come first: the city must identify a congestion commissioner — a point person with real clout to set the strategy, troubleshoot hot spots, and hold everyone to account.
This is a massive project that is going to require a top-level project manager. It will also require tracking metrics, like time-to-travel targets, to ensure that solutions are effective.
We also need action from the newly re-elected Ford Government. One of our most pressing recommendations is for the Province of Ontario to allow automated enforcement on our major roads to ensure traffic rules are followed. For too long, we have allowed individual actions to cause episodes of gridlock.
While we have heard many positive reactions, we have also heard from some people who argue that congestion is inevitable and that no short-term measures will make a real difference. But we disagree. We can do better — and we must.
Toronto’s roads will always be in high demand, especially as the population grows. The city’s infrastructure must be optimized to move people and goods as efficiently as possible. While congestion may never be eliminated, smart, practical steps can reduce delays, improve economic productivity, and make Toronto a more livable and competitive city.
The Board of Trade is calling on all levels of government to act now. We can’t afford not to.
About the Author
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Giles Gherson
President and Chief Executive Officer, Toronto Region Board of Trade
Giles Gherson serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Toronto Region Board of Trade, among North America's largest and most influential business organizations. In this role, Giles leads the Board's initiatives to strengthen and sustain business growth and competitiveness across the Toronto region, one of the fastest-growing metropolitan centres in North America.
Giles is dedicated to addressing the region’s most pressing challenges, including the widening productivity gap, the ongoing congestion crisis, and barriers to greater regional investment. At the same time, he champions Toronto’s vibrant growth and its role as a global leader in AI, data hubs and the diversity of its business sector. Under his leadership, the Board established the CEO-led Business Council of Toronto to tackle critical issues, with a strategic focus on Advanced Manufacturing, Climate and Energy Transition, the GTA West Economic Gateway, and the Financial Services sector.
Prior to joining the Board in 2022, Giles spent over 25 years in the private and public sector in progressively senior roles. He spent 15 years with the Province of Ontario, where he held multiple influential Deputy Minister roles – most extensively and recently as Deputy Minister, Economic Development. Previously, Giles has led the government’s economic growth and competitiveness policy, overseen the recent creation of two new agencies, Invest Ontario and IP Ontario, and worked to attract a wave of technology and manufacturing investments, including the retooling of the province’s auto sector for next generation battery electric vehicles. He currently sits on Ontario’s Advanced Manufacturing Council, working to boost the long-term competitiveness and resilience of this sector by attracting key investments and creating opportunities for businesses across the province.
Prior to his role in government, Giles worked as editor-in-chief of the Toronto Star, political editor of the National Post and editor of the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business. Giles is the immediate past President of the Board of Directors at the Institute of Public Administration of Canada, the country’s leading professional organization supporting excellence in the public sector.