Canada Housing Market

Toronto’s waterfront just got a little bigger.

Waterfront Toronto has completed a partial fill of the Parliament Slip, reclaiming a wedge of the harbour and adding a new pocket of land to the city’s footprint. The newly created land is expected to play a key role in the ongoing transformation of the post-industrial East Bayfront area.

What happened at Parliament Slip

Construction crews have been reshaping the largely underused industrial slip since 2024 as part of a larger waterfront infrastructure project. The work supports major changes in the area, including:

• Extending Queens Quay East
• Realigning Parliament Street
• Creating space for new road infrastructure
• Opening room for a new development block that can support housing
• Protecting a future corridor for the planned Waterfront East LRT, which is expected to run along Queens Quay from Bay Street toward Ookwemin Minising

How Toronto created the new land

Lakefilling has reshaped Toronto’s shoreline many times throughout the city’s history, and a similar approach was used here to fill the irregular shape of the Parliament Slip and build a new dockwall.

To form the new extension of land, clean material was placed into the slip and compacted using vibro-compaction. This technique uses controlled vibrations through a long probe to help settle and pack material tightly in place.

Environmental protections during construction

Because the area is home to native and introduced aquatic species, environmental precautions were included in the process. Before construction began, the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) safely cleared fish from the work zone and the space was sectioned off using underwater curtains to help protect surrounding habitat during construction.

What it looks like now

The former wedge shape of the slip has been filled in, although the outline can still be spotted in aerial imagery of the site. Waterfront Toronto has also shared a time-lapse video showing the land taking shape over the course of the project.

Source: https://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/news/parliament-slip-preparing-future-mobility-network