Toronto Harbour or Toronto Bay is a bay on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is a natural harbour, protected from Lake Ontario waves by the Toronto Islands. Today, the harbour is used primarily for recreational boating, including personal vessels and pleasure boats providing scenic or party cruises. Ferries travel from docks on the mainland to the Islands, and cargo ships deliver aggregates and raw sugar to industries located in the harbour. Historically, the harbour has been used for military vessels, passenger traffic and cargo traffic. Waterfront uses include residential, recreational, cultural, commercial and industrial sites.
There are two harbours, the original, natural harbour, today named the "Inner Harbour" and the "Outer Harbour". Access into the Inner Harbour is made via either the Western Gap or Eastern Gap. The Don River drains into the Inner Harbour from the north-east, through the Keating Channel.
The Inner Harbour is used by both pleasure boats and commercial vessels. The Ports Toronto agency maintains the harbour and operates port facilities and a passenger ship dock on the eastern shore. The north shore has a mixed range of uses including Harbourfront, a conversion from industrial land to recreational and cultural uses. Harbourfront has parks, hotels, an amphitheatre, and many other facilities. The north shore retains one port-related industrial use, the Redpath Sugar Refinery, while most of the lands have been converted to other uses. The Jack Layton Island Ferry Terminal is located at the foot of Bay Street and pleasure and party cruise boats dock along the shore to the west of York Street. The Toronto Islands are mostly parkland, although they do also contain several boat clubs, an amusement park, an airport and a small residential area.
The Western Gap is a 120 metres (390 ft) wide passages between the Bathurst Street Slip and the north wall of the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. The gap is deep enough (over 31 metres) to allow large ships (like lake freighters) to enter and exit into the Inner Harbour. Before the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport was built, the waterway was wide with a shallow sandy shoal surrounding what became Hanlan's Point.
The Eastern Gap is approximately 200 metres (660 ft) wide passenger between Wards Island and the western edge of the Port Lands and used by most freighter to enter into the Inner Harbour and port facilities. The gap was formed over from 1852 to 1858 when storms caused a break in the sandy spit that connected the area with mainland. Prior to the 1800s, small boat users had to use a portage on the western end of the sandy spit peninsula (thus requiring them to travel a short distance on land) from Lake Ontario to the inner harbour. After 1858, the Harbour Trust made the temporary channel into a permanent waterway.
Toronto also has a second harbour, called the Outer Harbour (Toronto Harbour is sometimes called the Inner Harbour). It was developed in the 1950s and 1960s by the Toronto Harbour Commission through the construction of a new breakwater called the Outer Harbour East Headland. At that time, it was expected that there would be a great upswing in the number of ships calling at Toronto once the Saint Lawrence Seaway opened. However, the need for an extra harbour never materialized, and private boats are the only traffic usually found there now. Ports Toronto operates a marina in the Outer Harbour and the municipal Cherry Beach park is also located in the Outer Harbour.
Today, port facilities are limited to the eastern shore of the harbour, with the exception of the Redpath Sugar Refinery at the foot of Jarvis Street. The tonnage of cargo passing through the port is made up mostly of sugar to Redpath and aggregate materials (cement, stone), salt delivered to facilities on the eastern shore of the harbour.
- In 2007, the port handled 1.6 million tonnes of traffic, a 0.3% share of national port traffic, 16th out of 19 Canada Port Authority ports by traffic.
- In 2006, Transport Canada ranked Toronto 39th out of 313 ports in 