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Burlington lies at the western tip of Lake Ontario and, together with neighboring Hamilton, forms the southern end of a dense and prosperous metro area that runs south from Toronto. It is a midsize city that mixes an urban core with suburban surroundings, an attractive waterfront to the south and the rugged cliffs of the Niagara Escarpment on its northern side.
The city’s location, infrastructure and pro-development leadership have generated substantial success. It is home to advanced manufacturing and tech companies including Evertz Microsystems, L3 Harris, Boehringer Ingelheim and Cogeco, as well as major Canadian food processers and Amazon distribution operations. The diverse economy includes many smaller firms, startups and scaleups in clean tech, life sciences, information technology and professional services. The city also anchors a new QEW Innovation Corridor, a 40-kilometer stretch of highway where Ontario Province is funding development of a testbed for connected vehicles, AI traffic management and other mobility technology. This density of leading-edge companies explains why two-thirds of Burlingtonians have post-secondary degrees.
Yet its latest plan for the future, Horizon 2050, stresses quality services, community engagement, social connectivity, the preservation of nature and what the plan calls “Intelligent Growth.” Like many successful communities, Burlington finds itself at the limits of one development model - focused on business attraction - and is innovating to create a new model for the future.
Room to Grow
Fast growth has brought its share of problems and distortions. Past expansion – and a commitment to keep half of its land rural or protected to preserve quality of life – has left the city boxed in by Lake Ontario on one side and by protected lands on the other. Lack of room and continued population growth drove the average 2025 home price above Can$1 million.
Horizon 2050 seeks to address this housing crisis while maintaining the quality of life treasured by residents. A massive housing strategy is building 29,000 new homes by 2031, concentrated in high-rise and mixed-use buildings surrounding the city’s three transit stations, which connect Burlington with cities running northward to Toronto. The city is also easing zoning laws to allow for more townhomes and small-scale multi-family homes (“four-plexes”) to bridge the gap between single-family homes and glass towers.
Climate Action
The fast growth of the past has also overstressed the city’s infrastructure. A recent municipal budget earmarks Can$106 million for upgrades to roadways and parks, and to transition the transit fleet to hybrid-electric vehicles. The 10-year funding target for infrastructure exceeds Can$1.2 billion. Digital infrastructure is also undergoing revamp with AI pilot projects, next-generation 911, the digitization of citizen and business services, and programs to help small businesses improve their online presence and digital tools.
Horizon 2050 also sets that year for the community to reach net-zero emissions. In addition to hybrid transit, a Better Homes Burlington program provides low-interest loans to residents for energy retrofits, from insulation to heat pumps, of older homes. The city will also combat “heat islands” by increasing the urban tree canopy in newly developed areas by 35%.
The plan projects a population of 265,000 by 2050, a +30% increase in a place that has no room left for conventional development and job creation. To meet its goals, the city has embraced the need for change in its physical form without sacrificing the beauty, safety, quality education and quality of life that have made it so desirable.
Population: 200,000
Website: www.burlington.ca
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