The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes Canada's most populous city, Toronto, and the regional municipalities of Durham, Halton, Peel, and York. In total, the region contains 25 urban, suburban, and rural municipalities.OECD "OECD Territorial Reviews OECD Territorial Reviews: Toronto, Canada 2009" OECD Publishing, p37 The Greater Toronto Area begins in Burlington in Halton Region to the west, and extends along Lake Ontario past downtown Toronto eastward to Clarington in Durham Region.
According to the 2021 census, the Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) of Toronto has a total population of 6.202 million residents, making it Canada's most populous metropolitan area, and the 7th-largest in North America. However, the Greater Toronto Area, which is an economic area defined by the Government of Ontario, includes communities that are not included in the CMA, as defined by Statistics Canada. Extrapolating the data for all 25 communities in the Greater Toronto Area from the 2021 Census, the total population for the economic region included 6,711,985 people.
The Greater Toronto Area is a part of several larger areas in Southern Ontario. The area is also combined with the city of Hamilton to form a conurbation known as the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). The GTHA combined with Niagara Region form the core of the Golden Horseshoe.
Etymology The term "Greater Toronto" was first used in writing as early as the 1900s although at the time, the term referred only to the old city of Toronto and to its immediate townships and villages, which became Metropolitan Toronto in 1954 and became the current city of Toronto in 1998.Solomon, Lawrence "Toronto sprawls: a history." University of Toronto Press; 1 edition, p3 The use of the term involving the four surrounding regional municipalities came into formal use in the mid-1980s, when it was used in a widely discussed report on municipal governance restructuring in the region and was later made official as a provincial planning area. However, it did not come into everyday usage until the mid-to-late 1990s.
In 2006, the term began to be supplanted in the field of spatial planning as provincial policy increasingly began to refer to either the "Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area" (GTHA) or the still-broader "Greater Golden Horseshoe". The latter includes the Greater Toronto Area's satellite municipalities, such as Peterborough, Barrie, Guelph, Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and Niagara Region. The GTA continues, however, to be in official use elsewhere in the Government of Ontario, such as the Ministry of Finance.
Census metropolitan area
Some municipalities considered part of the GTA are not within the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), which is smaller than the land area and population of the GTA planning area. For example, Oshawa is the centre of its own CMA, yet deemed part of the Greater Toronto Area, while other municipalities, such as New Tecumseth in southern Simcoe County and Mono Township in Dufferin County are included in the Toronto CMA but not in the GTA. These different border configurations result in the GTA's population being higher than the Toronto CMA by nearly one-half million people, often leading to confusion amongst people when trying to sort out Toronto's urban population.
Other nearby urban areas, such as Hamilton, Barrie, St. Catharines-Niagara, or Kitchener-Waterloo, are not part of the GTA or the Toronto CMA, but form their own CMAs near the GTA. Ultimately, all the aforementioned places are part of the Greater Golden Horseshoe metropolitan region, an urban agglomeration, which is the fifth most populous in North America. It is part of the Great Lakes megalopolis, containing an estimated 59.1 million people in 2011.
+ Municipalities in Greater Toronto Area and related CMAs Census division Census subdivision In GTA Toronto CMA Oshawa CMA Hamilton CMAToronto Durham Region Ajax Clarington Brock Oshawa Pickering Scugog Uxbridge Whitby Halton Region Burlington Halton Hills Milton Oakville Peel Region Brampton Caledon Mississauga York Region Aurora East Gwillimbury Georgina King Markham Newmarket Richmond Hill Vaughan Whitchurch-Stouffville Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation Dufferin County Mono Orangeville Simcoe County Bradford West Gwillimbury New Tecumseth
Extended area The term "Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area" (GTHA) refers to the GTA, and the city of Hamilton, located along the western border of the Greater Toronto Area. The term has been adopted by several organizations, including Metrolinx and the Ministry of Energy) because of the growing commuter population in the combined region. The GTHA and the Regional Municipality of Niagara form the inner ring of the larger Greater Golden Horseshoe, an urban agglomeration and secondary region of Ontario.
History
Early history Historically, the Greater Toronto Area was home to a number of First Nations who lived on the shore of Lake Ontario long before the first Europeans arrived in the region. At various times, the Neutral, the Seneca, the Mohawk and the Wendat (Huron) nations were living in the vicinity. The Mississaugas arrived in the late 17th or early 18th century, driving out the occupying Haudenosaunee.The Ojibwa-Iroquois War: The War the Five Nations Did Not Win. Leroy V. Eid. Ethnohistory, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Autumn, 1979), Duke University Press, pp. 297–324Schmalz, Peter S., The Ojibwa of Southern Ontario. University of Toronto Press. . pp 21–22 While it is unclear as to who was the first European to reach the Toronto area, there is no question it occurred in the 17th century.
The area would later become very crucial for its series of trails and water routes that led from northern and western Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Known as the "Toronto Carrying-Place Trail", it followed the Humber River, as an important overland shortcut between Lake Ontario, Lake Simcoe and the upper Great Lakes. For this reason the area, under French fur traders, became a major part of the North American fur trade. The French would later establish three trading forts, Magasin Royal in the 1720s, although abandoned within the decade, Fort Toronto in 1750 and Fort Rouillé in 1751. During the Seven Years' War both forts were abandoned but Fort Toronto was later renovated. Fort Rouillé was burnt down after the Battle of Fort Niagara in 1759 by the French garrison during the French and Indian War.
The first large influx of European settlers to settle the region were the United Empire Loyalists arriving after the American Revolution, when various individuals petitioned the Crown for land in and around the Toronto area. In 1787, the British negotiated the purchase of more than a quarter million acres () of land in the area of Toronto with the Mississaugas of New Credit.Missisaugas of the New Credit CURRENT LAND CLAIMS York County, would later be created by Governor John Graves Simcoe in 1792, which would at its largest size, comprise all of what is now Halton Region, Toronto, Peel Region, York Region and parts of Durham Region.Ontario's Districts – 1798 , Queen's Printer for Ontario. Retrieved on February 6, 2010.
The GTA saw three American incursions during the War of 1812. The Town of York (present-day Toronto) was attacked by American forces at Battle of York, on April 27, 1813; and was subsequently occupied until May 8. The second incursion occurred several months later, in July 1813, with two landings in the GTA. On July 29, American forces landed at Burlington Beach (present-day Burlington) in an attempt to dislodge British forces at the adjacent Burlington Heights. However, finding the British forces too well-entrenched for any assault to be successful, the American naval force withdrew and proceeded east towards York. The American landings at York on July 31 went unopposed, with most of the soldiers garrisoned at York directed to defend Burlington Heights. The third incursion occurred a year later, when an American naval squadron arrived outside of York's harbour on August 6, 1814. The squadron dispatched to enter the harbour in order to gauge the town's defences, where it briefly exchanged cannon fire with Fort York before withdrawing to rejoin the American squadron outside the harbour. American forces did not attempt a landing during this incursion, although remained outside York's harbour for three days before departing.
In 1816, Wentworth County (which would later become the city of Hamilton) and Halton County were created from York County. York County would later serve as the setting for the beginnings of the Upper Canada Rebellion with William Lyon Mackenzie's armed march from Holland Landing towards York Township on Yonge Street, eventually leading up to the battle at Montgomery's Tavern. In 1851, Ontario County (present-day Durham Region) and Peel County were separated from York.
Since 1901
The idea towards a streamlined local government to control local infrastructure was made as early as 1907 by, William Findlay Maclean, a member of parliament and founder of The Toronto World, who called for the expansion of the government of the former City of Toronto in order to create a Greater Toronto. The idea for a single government municipality would not be seriously explored until the late 1940s when planners decided the city needed to incorporate its immediate suburbs. However, due to strong opposition from suburban politicians, a compromise was struck, which resulted in the creation of Metropolitan Toronto.Solomon, Lawrence "Toronto sprawls: a history." University of Toronto Press; 1 edition, p3-8 In 1953, the portion of York County south of Steeles Avenue, a concession road which formed a common boundary between several townships across the width of the county, was severed from it and incorporated as the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto.Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto Act , Queen's Printer for Ontario. Retrieved on February 6, 2010. With the concession of Metro Toronto, the offices of York County were moved from Toronto to Newmarket.
Originally, the membership in Metropolitan Toronto included the City of Toronto and five townships: East York, Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough and York; as well as seven villages and towns, which became amalgamated into their surrounding townships in 1967. The early Metro Toronto government debated over the annexation of surrounding townships of Markham, Pickering and Vaughan. Frederick Goldwin Gardiner, the first Metro Toronto Chairman, planned on the conversion of these townships into boroughs of the Metro Toronto government.Rose, Albert "Governing metropolitan Toronto: a social and political analysis, 1953–1971" Institute of Governmental Studies; University of California Press; 1st edition, p.107, 166 In 1971, the remaining areas of York County was replaced by the Ontario government with the Regional Municipality of York. In 1974, Ontario and Durham Counties were reorganized to become the Regional Municipality of Durham; Pickering west of Rouge River was transferred to Scarborough at that time. Peel County became Peel Region in 1974 as well. In 1980, North York would be incorporated into a city, with York following suit in 1983 and Etobicoke and Scarborough in 1984, although still part of the Metropolitan Toronto municipal government.