Toronto Parking Authority

The Toronto Parking Authority is a public corporation owned by the City of Toronto.

TPA was established in 1998 with the merger of parking operations in the cities of Toronto, York, Etobicoke, Scarborough, North York and the Borough of York. The bulk of the operations was from the old Parking Authority of Toronto, established in the old city of Toronto in 1952.

According to the Toronto Parking Authority website in 2005, it operates 160 municipal parking lots containing about 20,000 spaces. Twenty of these lots accounting for approximately 10,000 spaces are garages. The remaining 10,000 spaces are contained in approximately 140 surface lots. Parking lots that are operated by the Toronto Parking Authority are marked with green signs with their signature P in the middle, hence, "Green P" parking.

In late 2005 and throughout 2006, the TPA began the process of automating many of their surface carparks, notably Carparks 5, 12, 39, 49, and 58. Equipping these carparks allows the TPA to operate these lots on a 24-hour basis. They are operated by cashiers during the day during peak business hours and then are run by exit pay stations later on at night. The exit pay stations accept coins and credit cards only as a method of payment. Yet despite being in place for over a year and having numerous signs around the parking lot at the entrance and exits, customers are still dumbfounded by the fact that "they can't pay cash" at the exit stations. This has led to several problems including (but not limited to) broken gates, tailgating, bills inserted into the credit card slot at the exit, into the coin slot at the exit and even bills left in the change dispenser at the exit. By September 2006, Carpark 29 will become a fully automated parking garage where customers make payments at the designated pay stations rather than to the cashiers. Automating the car parks has reduced the need for part-time student staff.

2007 marked the end of Maurice Anderson's tenure as president of the Toronto Parking Authority. On April 30, 2007, Gwyn Thomas was appointed the new president. Thomas was the former vice-president.