Adedokun Waliyu 
The City of Toronto along with Toronto Hydro is taking what Mayor Olivia Chow calls a “major step forward to modernize our street lighting system,” by converting all streetlights to LED by 2035.
As per the 2026 budget, the City will invest $577 million over ten years to convert current streetlights to energy-efficient LED lighting. Aging underground infrastructure will also be replaced.
According to Toronto Hydro, 33 per cent of the city’s street lighting assets and 86 per cent of underground infrastructure is past its useful service life.
“This is just not a number we can ignore,” said Chow.
Speaking at Milliken Park in Scarborough, the mayor said the process to replace street lights under the current 25-year-old agreement with Toronto Hydro is clunky, antiquated and long overdue for an overhaul.
“Instead of upgrading a streetlight when we know it’s nearing the end of it’s life, we wait for it to go out. Then we wait for residents to notice and call 311. Then we pay to send someone out to fix it – that approach is no longer good enough. We are moving from reactive to proactive … investing in long-term solutions,” she said.
Smart lighting controls will also be introduced to enhance scheduling and dimming as needed, as well as failure detection and subsequent repair.
Jana Mosley, President & CEO, Toronto Hydro said the investment over the next decade will be “front loaded” in the first four years to support rapid conversion to LED. This means that by 2030, 60 per cent of the city’s streetlight fixtures will be LED.
Mosley emphasized the savings and environmental benefits of the plan, saying that LED lights will reduce energy consumption by 40 to 60 per cent and an additional 20 per cent in savings is achieved by the addition of smart lighting controls.
“The program is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent, with over 6,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2035,” said Mosley.
After the change over to LED streetlights is complete, the City is on track to save $6.5 million every year in energy and maintenance costs as LEDs tend to last two to four times longer than conventional lights. Chow said that made it a better deal for taxpayers as well.
“Saved energy is smart energy as these efficiencies mean the load on the grid will be reduced, helping to avoid higher system costs associated with system investments that we’re required to make,” added Mosley.
Chow said priority will be given to those areas in the city with the highest need and where the impact on safety and reliability will be the greatest. Toronto Hydro is working with the city to identify high risk areas or hot spots based on factors like traffic, crime rates and the age of the infrastructure.
Mosely added that there will be coordination with other city agencies that might be working in the area to minimize disruption and inconvenience to residents and drivers in those neighbourhoods.
“Because of our congestion Czar we have the construction coordination office… to make sure all the construction is coordinated so you don’t see a crew coming in to dig up your road once for hydro, second time for track laying, third time for watermains … we’ll coordinate all of it and do it in one shot,” added Chow.
The City of Toronto is facing a $1 billion operating shortfall. When asked why it was important for Toronto to make this investment now as opposed to waiting until the City is in a better financial position, Mosley said the project is extremely time sensitive and necessary given the current state of the aging infrastructure.
Stephen Conforti, the City’s chief financial officer and treasurer further explained that as part of the 2026 budget, Council approved a $63 billion capital plan.
“As part of that capital plan… we prioritize investments in state of good repair, we prioritize investments in safety, we prioritize investments that contribute to our environmental goals,” he said.
“So what you see here is an investment that captures all three of those which is one of the reasons why it was included in the budget this year.”
