Toronto’s New Island is Ready to Launch
PUBLISHED: MAY 30, 2025
Toronto has a new island where the Don River meets Lake Ontario. Surrounded by a winding river and overlooking the downtown skyline, Toronto’s new island is a place like no other.
Ookwemin Minising (formerly known as Villiers Island) is a new island born from one of the world’s most ambitious flood protection and river restoration projects. The island is ringed with wetlands surrounding a new park, named Biidaasige Park.
A historic gathering place, the Don River will be at the heart of a new community home to more than 15,000 people and a a destination for all to visit and explore.
In January 2025, all orders of government invested nearly $1 billion to accelerate new housing and waterfront destinations and create ways to move around the inner harbour. What this means for the island: we can start to build infrastructure, new homes and destinations.
What are the next steps?
Laying the cornerstone
Design starts this summer on the fundamentals needed to develop the island: the public spaces, streets, stormwater and sanitary pipes, and utility ducts that support the building of new homes.
After a competitive process resulting in bids from engineering and design teams from around the world, Niwiijiganaa Gikendaasowin - We Braid Knowledge - a partnership of global professional services company GHD (based in Australia) and global design studio SLA (based in Denmark) was selected. The landscape, public realm and built form design team includes Allies and Morrison (an Architecture and Urban Design firm based in England), Trophic Design (an Indigenous-owned landscape architecture firm based in southern Ontario), Transsolar (an international climate engineering firm with extensive experience in sustainable urban design) and accessible design consultants Level Playing Field.
Together, this team brings unrivaled expertise to implement the vision that was established through years of planning done in consultation with the public.
Housing
Given the pressing need to build housing in Toronto, and in response to direction from Toronto City Council, Waterfront Toronto, the City of Toronto and CreateTO are committed to identifying ways to deliver more housing on the island.
As we move from planning and studies into designing and building this new community, the streets and public realm and future buildings will take shape, allowing our team to identify the best way to build more homes in this future neighbourhood.
Our international consulting team will integrate design for streets and public spaces with a review of the density and built form on the island. Their goal is to design excellent public spaces and streets to create a great neighbourhood; it’s through that lens that they will confirm opportunities to add homes, building on the work completed through a recent Density Study.
Making this place...a place!
The distinct red, yellow and orange bridges that connect Ookwemin Minising to downtown are already new Toronto landmarks. And this summer the park will come alive with activity. Now, it’s time to get to work, bringing the rest of the island to life thanks to a tri-government investment in waterfront revitalization.
Design will soon start on the remaining section of Biidaasige Park. This is a chance to bring new attractions to undeveloped areas of the island as soon as possible; to begin to make this a city landmark – a place where locals and visitors can experience the wonders of nature, the best of arts and culture, connect with family or take in a show.
Meet your new island this summer
Visitors will get their first look at this 60-acre park when the river and parts of the park system open this summer. And in 2026, the park will be fully open, along with the much-anticipated Lassonde Art Trail, a free immersive outdoor experience that will weave people through the river valley up to the promontory that overlooks downtown Toronto.
How You Can Get Involved
Want to work with us towards building a city within a city, with new parks, homes for 100,000 people and a destination for around 100,000 full-time jobs?
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More About Ookwemin Minising and Biidaasige Park
Island Size
- 98 acres
- Parks on Ookwemin Minising: 50 acres
- Parks and Greenspace, including river: 80 acres
Naming the Park and Island
The waterfront has over 12,000 years of history as an important place for Indigenous communities. This is evident in Toronto’s name, derived from the word “Tkaranto,” meaning “where there are trees in the water.” Going back thousands of years, the mouth of the Don River has been a significant gathering place for Indigenous people.
The water and waterfront’s historical, cultural and ongoing significance to Indigenous communities compels us to take special care and engage in collaborative approaches to the next phase of waterfront revitalization.
In November 2024, members of an Indigenous Advisory Circle convened by the City of Toronto announced the name of the new island and park. The Circle chose Ookwemin Minising (pronounced Oh-kway-min Min-nih-sing) as the island’s name meaning “place of the black cherry trees” in Anishinaabemowin/Ojibwemowin. Alongside the new island name, the Circle also chose a name for the surrounding park, determined as Biidaasige Park (pronounced Bee-daw-sih-geh) meaning “sunlight shining towards us” in Anishinaabemowin/Ojibwemowin.
