The History of Biidaasige Park

Landscape & Ecology

Biidaasige Park is made up of three different landscapes: the River, the Floodplain and the Uplands.

River

The Don River starts at the Forks of the Don in E.T. Seton Park, seven kilometres north of Lake Ontario. Where the Don River meets Biidaasige Park, the riverbed is made of armourstone, which breaks up the ice and other debris carried downriver during the winter, preventing damage to the ecosystem in the Park.

The Don River’s course through Biidaasige Park takes it past several niche ecosystems that are crucial for the reproductive cycles of native fish, insects, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles. The main river also contains microhabitat features like dead trees, tree stumps, rocky hollows and snags that support species diversity and resilience.

Due to the slow speed of the river, the lower reaches need to be dredged of sediment periodically to prevent buildup.

Floodplain

Where the Don River meets the shore in Biidaasige Park is the Floodplain. The Floodplain is naturalized infrastructure that eliminates flood risk to the Port Lands, and its landscapes are part of a system that is regularly managed, monitored, inspected and assessed.

The Floodplain is neither fully dry nor fully submerged, except during big storms, which creates ecosystems for creatures that live on both land and in the water. This includes turtles, frogs, salamanders, geese, ducks, cormorants, muskrats, beavers and minks.

Trees in different life stages, from saplings to dead trees, have been planted to mimic the diversity of trees in a wild ecosystem. For example, younger trees provide food for pollinators like bees and hummingbirds, while dead trees provide shelter for nesting animals like squirrels and snakes.

Four fish gates have been installed in the Floodplain to prevent larger, invasive fish from entering the Floodplain. The gates allow smaller native fish species to pass through unrestricted, allowing them to spawn and swim freely.

Uplands

The Uplands are a more human-focused space. Its purpose is to create an environment that invites people to gather and interact. The Uplands are designed to stay unflooded during heavy rainfall events so they can be used during and after a storm. This is where the cycling trails, the playground, picnic terraces, off-leash areas and the Old Fire Hall 30 Community Recreation Centre are located.

History

Glacial advance and retreat shaped the geography of the shores of Lake Ontario and the waterways that feed into it.

Time Immemorial

The last glacial retreat carved a deep ravine and river from Oak Ridges Moraine to Lake Ontario. The run-off emptied through one of the largest wetlands – later called Ashbridges Bay Marsh by settlers – in the Great Lakes.

Archaeological evidence indicates Indigenous people likely came into the area shortly after this period. Animals made the first trails to water, and the people followed.

1793

Upper Canada Lieutenant-Governor John Simcoe named the Don River after a river in England.

Elizabeth Simcoe’s diary suggests that the name of the river or surrounding area used at the time was Wonscotonach (possibly an anglicized version of Waasayishkodenayosh). This Anishinaabe phrase has been discussed with Indigenous communities as either referring to the river coming from the back burnt grounds, which could refer to the forest-fire sustained woodlands that grew north of Ashbridges Bay Marsh, or burning bright point/peninsula referring to the pensinsula by the lake made bright by fire.

The town of York was established, and York would eventually be known as Toronto.

1890s

The Don Improvement Project dredged and straightened the southern part of the river through the Ashbridges Bay Marsh to flush industrial pollutants into the harbour and make space for railway construction. This results in periodic flooding.

1893

City engineer Edward Keating proposes a channel to connect Ashbridges Bay to Toronto Harbour, in another attempt to flush the pollution coming down the Don River from industrial sources like the brickworks, the Gooderham and Worts Distillery, abattoirs and sawmills.

1912

The Keating Channel is finished and the Don River is forced into a 90-degree turn westward to the Inner Harbour after its natural mouth is filled in. Governments fill in the heavily polluted Ashbridges Bay Marsh to create the Port Lands, a large industrial district with refineries, coal facilities, factories and shipping infrastructure.

Lakefilling continues incrementally over decades to facilitate further industrial development.

1954

Hurricane Hazel stopped over Toronto, flooding the city and, particularly, the communities near the Humber River, leading to 35 deaths. The damage from Hurricane Hazel caused the Province of Ontario to pass the Conservation Authorities Act, establish the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority and other conservation authorities, and restrict residential development within flood-prone areas.

1969

Activists hold a Funeral for the Don to highlight the ongoing decay of the river and valley as a result of industrial development.

1989 to 1991

Civic leaders meet to advocate for the restoration of the Don River. The Task Force to Bring Back the Don is formed and releases a 1991 report that envisions bringing back the Don through a new river mouth in the Port Lands by emulating the river’s original route into the harbour.

2001

Motivated by a bid for the 2008 Summer Olympics and other potential opportunities, the federal and provincial governments, with the City of Toronto, formed the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation. It was tasked with the development and rehabilitation of the city’s waterfront, which included the Port Lands Flood Protection (PLFP) project. PLFP included the renaturalization of the Don River by creating a new river course and parklands through the Port Lands, and was designed to flood. This would protect the land beyond the flood area.

2007

Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, based in New York, wins an international competition to design the new Port Lands, including parks along the banks of the new river mouth.

2017

Construction starts on the new river mouth. Plugs on the north, west and south prevent river and lake water from entering the construction zone.

2024

The City establishes a formal Day One working group, comprising various divisions and agencies, to plan for the opening of Biidaasige Park. This includes the handover from Waterfront Toronto, the park’s designer and builder, to the City for ongoing management.

November

The new island created by the new river mouth is gifted an Indigenous name following an Indigenous-led naming process established by Toronto City Council. Ookwemin Minising means “place of the black cherry trees” in Anishinaabemowin/Ojibwemowin. The same process bestows a name on the new parkland: Biidaasige Park, meaning “sunlight shining towards us” in Anishinaabemowin/Ojibwemowin. Later the same month, the “north plug” is removed, allowing the waters of the Don River to flow through the new river mouth, recreating the natural route lost more than 100 years ago.

July 2025

The first phase of Biidaasige Park opens to the public. Other phases will open in future years as Ookwemin Minising is developed as a flood-protected home for approximately 16,000 people and a workplace for another 3,000.

The Future

Biidaasige Park and Ookwemin Minising are works in progress.

Biidaasige Park North, at the northwest corner of Ookwemin Minising, is expected to open in 2028. Biidaasige Park North will include:

• event infrastructure
• a skating trail
• a new lookout
• washrooms
• water access
• the landing point of the Keating Equinox Bridge

On Ookwemin Minising, community services and facilities will open as development continues.