Toronto Islands reopen after almost three-month closure

The Toronto Islands, a popular summer destination for both city residents and tourists, reopened to the public on Monday after a nearly three-month closure due to flooding.

Mayor John Tory was on hand to announce the reopening of the islands to the public, but noted some areas will remain off limits to the public.

All beaches on Toronto Island Park — Centre Island Beach, Hanlan’s Point Beach and Ward’s Island Beach — will be open, however, portions of some beaches will remain closed.

And some areas of Toronto Island Park, such as Olympic Island, are to remain closed due to damage from the flooding.

The reopening will be welcome news to island businesses, which rely on the busy summer season for a large portion of their revenue and have suffered losses as their flow of customers slowed to a trickle.

Heavy rains in the spring caused water levels in Lake Ontario to rise to record highs, closing the cluster of islands to visitors as trees fell over, roads were washed out and carp spawned in large, muddy puddles. Last year, more than 1.46 million people visited the islands and the city says warm-weather weekends typically see more than 20,000 people a day on the islands.

Tory has said the cost of fixing the damage done to the city’s shorelines and the Toronto Islands will run to many millions of dollars. The city said last week that preliminary numbers suggest the flooding and closure of the island had a financial impact of $4.9 million on its operating budget.