The Bentway’s 2025–26 year marked an important step in our evolution. Across the Gardiner corridor, we began to trace a larger idea: that one continuous piece of infrastructure can generate many forms of public value. The work in these pages lays important groundwork for our bold, long-term vision:
7km of connection,
7km of culture,
7km of possibility.
Infrastructure is often judged by a single measure: whether it performs the job it was built to do. But cities change, and the structures within them should be capable of changing too.
At The Bentway, we ask a different question: how can the infrastructure we already have deliver more for the people and communities around it?
Throughout this past year that idea took many forms.
We advanced planning for future Bentway destinations and laid the groundwork for a connected network of public spaces stretching across the city. Artists and designers reimagined the Gardiner as Toronto’s largest continuous urban canopy and The Bentway’s shaded public realm as an essential civic resource, supporting health, equity, and climate resilience. Along the waterfront, new partnerships demonstrated how culture can connect communities while strengthening our relationship with Lake Ontario. Across every season, thousands of people gathered to skate, create, learn, volunteer, and experience public space in new ways.
Each initiative reflects the same belief: that we can ask our infrastructure to deliver more, supporting movement while also creating the cultural, social, environmental, and economic value that strengthens everyday life.
None of this happens alone. It is made possible by artists, Indigenous partners, community organizations, public agencies, supporters, volunteers, and neighbours who bring their knowledge, creativity, and care to this work.
To our donors and partners: your support gives us the foundation to test what infrastructure can do, build the relationships this work depends on, and carry the vision forward. Thank you for helping shape this next chapter of The Bentway.
Ilana Altman
Chief Executive Officer
