International Marine Passenger Terminal

International Marine Passenger Terminal is a cruise ship passenger terminal located in the Port of Toronto at 8 Unwin Avenue in Port Lands, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The facility is operated by PortsToronto.^[1]

International Marine Passenger Terminal
Exterior of the International Marine Passenger Terminal from the Toronto Harbour
Click on the map for a fullscreen view
Location
Country	Canada
Location	Port of Toronto, Port Lands, Toronto, Ontario
Coordinates	43.63472°N 79.34917°W / 43.63472; -79.34917
Details
Opened	2005
Owned by	PortsToronto
Statistics
Vessel arrivals	36 (2019)
Passenger traffic	12,000
Website www.portstoronto.com/cruise-ships.aspx

History

The terminal was opened in 2005.^[2] It was originally built to accommodate The Spirit of Ontario I, a water-jet powered big catamaran fast ferry that was to make several round trips per day between Toronto, Ontario and Rochester, New York, but the ferry service only ran for a total of six months.^[3] The Rochester firm that owned and operated the ferry had a 14-year lease on the use of the terminal that would have paid the City of Toronto $250,000 per year.^[4][3] The lease was terminated in December 2009 after payment of a $90,000 settlement.

Since the demise of the fast ferry service, PortsToronto has been promoting Toronto as a cruise ship destination. Cruise ships that serve American and European tourists travelling on the Great Lakes between May and October are making increasing use of the terminal as a port of call over the summer months. Indeed cruise passenger volumes at a variety of Great Lakes ports, which cumulatively had 100,000 passengers in 2018, increased between 2015 and 2019 reflecting increased touring on the Great Lakes.^[5]

Terminal building

The terminal is a two-storey building which has 38,000 square feet (3,500 m²) of floor space and can deploy an adjustable passenger ramp from the second storey. The terminal facility is reported to have cost either CA$8 million or CA$10.4 million to construct.^[6][7] The terminal building is also regularly used as a film location. For its three years in production the CBC drama The Border used the customs facilities of the terminal as the headquarters of an elite customs and border squad.^[3] Renting the terminal for filming costs $3,500 per day.^[8]

Traffic

Cruise ships that have made multiple ports of call over the last few years include the 420 passenger MS Hamburg, the 180 passenger MV Le Champlain and the 210 passenger MV Victory I. On October 14, 2019 the terminal processed a record 988 people when the Hamburg, the Le Champlain and their passengers and crew docked on the same day.^[9]

Annual Passenger Traffic^[10]

Year	Vessel Calls	Total Passengers	Year Over Year Growth Rate
2012	4	690	-
2013	9	2,900	320%
2014	6	3,000	3.3%
2015	13	5,000	66%
2016	7	2,400	-52%
2017	16	5,600	133%
2018	17	6,000	7.1%
2019	36	12,000	100%

References

1. "Getting to The Port of Toronto's International Marine Passenger Terminal". Port of Toronto. 2011. Archived from the original on April 18, 2012. The Port of Toronto's International Marine Passenger Terminal welcomes cruise ship passengers from around the world to Canada's largest city... it also serves as a popular filming location and rental location for special events.
2. "225 Years of Port Activity". PortsToronto.
3. Emily Mathieu (December 18, 2009). "Rochester ends fast ferry lease". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on October 19, 2012. According to the Democrat & Chronicle, the ferry board agreed to pay the Toronto Port Authority a settlement of $90,000 (U.S.) to end the lease. The board also voted to dissolve the Rochester Ferry Co.
4. Debra Black (May 6, 2006). "Beleaguered ferry heads off across the pond; Rochester unties Spirit of Ontario Sold for $29.8M to plug financial hole". Toronto Star. p. A 12. Retrieved December 30, 2011. The Toronto Port Authority's terminal that accommodated the ferry at Cherry Beach will be put to other use, said Lundy. Other cruise vessels on the Great Lakes use it. And the Toronto Port Authority is also looking at other possibilities for the terminal.^{[dead link‍]}
5. Jane Stevenson (June 2, 2019). "Explore the Great Lakes on a cruise ship". Toronto Sun. Retrieved December 24, 2019. Cruise the Great Lakes' inaugural half-season last year, which began in August, saw 17 ships — roughly 6,000 passengers — visit Toronto. This season, about 35 ships are expected to dock in the city between May and October.
6. Debra Black (January 12, 2006). "Ferry lived fast and died young". Toronto Star. p. E 01. Archived from the original on January 11, 2013. Retrieved December 30, 2011. What happens to the terms of that lease and what Rochester owes the port authority must still be determined, said [Lisa Raitt]. The ferry is survived by the $8 million International Marine Passenger Terminal on Cherry Beach and a $35 million (U.S.) Rochester port redevelopment, which included a new terminal.
7. Charles Wyatt (August 18, 2005). "Port authority embarking on fresh start: Focus shifting to rebuilding ties, efficiency". Business Edge news magazine. Archived from the original on January 8, 2014. Retrieved April 24, 2012. The ferry is now owned by the City of Rochester and uses a $10.5-million international marine passenger terminal built by the Toronto Port Authority. The ferry is operating at 50-per-cent capacity, but usage is expected to increase.
8. "Filming: Rates valid until August 31, 2012". Toronto Port Authority. 2012. Archived from the original on May 19, 2012. Retrieved April 23, 2012.
9. @PortsToronto (October 14, 2019). "No, you're not seeing double. @Ponant_Cruises ' MV Le Champlain and the MS Hamburg are docked at the Port of Toronto today as part of their Great Lakes cruise itineraries. Our Cruise Ship Terminal will process a record 988 passengers today. Welcome to Toronto! #CruiseGreatLakes" (Tweet). Retrieved December 24, 2019 – via Twitter.
10. "Reports and publications". Ports Toronto. Retrieved December 24, 2019.