The Moving to Toronto Checklist That Prices 16 Steps

Most moving checklists tell you to book the elevator and label the boxes. None of them mentions the Highway Traffic Act. It sets three clocks: 6 days for a vehicle permit address, 30 days for a car you drove here, 60 days for your licence. We listed every registration, account and declaration a Toronto move puts in front of a household, then read each from the instrument that sets it. Sixteen items qualified. Nine of them cost you money and seven are free or name no fee. Seven carry a deadline you can miss. Here is the whole list, ordered by how soon it bites.

Three of your first deadlines come from one statute

These are the ones with a real legal clock. They come from the Highway Traffic Act, read on the e-Laws consolidation running from July 1, 2026.

6 days: the address on your permit

Section 9 (2) is blunt. If you own a vehicle or hold plates and your address changes, you "shall within six days file with the Ministry notice of the new name or address". ServiceOntario says the same thing about the licence and the permit together: "By law, you must update your driver's licence and vehicle permit within 6 days of your address changing."

This one applies to anyone who already holds Ontario documents, including a move across town. It costs nothing, but it wastes a trip. You can start the change online, then you still have to attend a ServiceOntario counter to swap the old permit for your new address. Bring the original permit: the change is $0 when you do, and a replacement fee when you do not.

30 days: the car you drove here

Section 15 (2) is headed "Exemption from s. 7 for thirty days". On becoming an Ontario resident, you are exempt from the registration rules for the thirty days that follow. The exemption is conditional. It holds only while you have complied with your old jurisdiction's registration law and you keep displaying its plate the way that law requires.

At the counter you pay $32 for the vehicle permit and $59 for the licence plate with the permit, so $32 + $59 = $91 for the pair. The annual plate sticker for a passenger car has been $0 since March 13, 2022.

60 days: your driver's licence

Section 34 (2) is headed "Exemption of new residents", and it is not a window to exchange anything. It switches off section 32, the rule that says you need an Ontario licence, for sixty days after you become a resident. That holds only while your old licence is still valid. DriveTest words the same rule from the other side: any new resident with a licence from another province or country "must apply for an Ontario driver's licence within 60 days".

If your jurisdiction has a reciprocal exchange agreement, the swap happens at the counter, but the class turns on experience. A full Class G needs at least 2 years of driving experience in a full class equivalent in the last three years. Without proof of that time, DriveTest says your licence "will be exchanged as a novice class, and you will be required to complete graduated licensing in Ontario". Either way the exchange is $90, the five-year licence price, and ServiceOntario prices an original Ontario licence at the same $90. Apply at any DriveTest centre or the ServiceOntario at Bay and College.

Off that list there is no swap at all. You enter the graduated licensing system, with credit for up to a maximum of 12 months of driving experience. DriveTest says you must complete both the Class G2 and G road tests. Your credited experience "cannot be used to reduce the mandatory waiting period between the G2 and G road tests". Sixty days gets that started, not finished. With less than 12 months of credited experience you serve Ontario's waiting periods before you are even eligible for the G2 road test.

OHIP is immediate, but there is a 153-day test

The three-month wait people still warn newcomers about is gone. The health ministry's page opens with it: "There is no longer a waiting period for OHIP coverage. If you are eligible, you will have immediate health insurance coverage." Apply as soon as you arrive.

Eligibility instead rests on presence, and the ministry opens its list with "With certain exceptions". You must be physically in Ontario for 153 days in any 12-month period. You must also be here for at least 153 of your first 183 days. Ontario has to be your primary residence. On top of that you need one status requirement, such as citizenship, permanent residence, or a valid work permit with full-time Ontario work for at least 6 months.

You apply in person at a ServiceOntario centre with three documents. The citizenship and identity ones must be originals. The residency one may be original, printed or digital. Separately, if you already had OHIP and only your address changed, you have 30 days to update it.

Every item, what it costs and when it is due

What the paperwork actually costs

Every figure below is the fee that row's own source currently publishes. The City schedules are stamped 2026, ServiceOntario's January 2026, DriveTest's 2019, and Canada Post carries no date. There is no total, because no authority publishes one, and adding a provincial fee to a City fee would produce a price nobody charges.

The bills that start when you get the keys

Electricity is the one every household pays. Toronto Hydro applies an "Account set up charge/change of occupancy charge" of $35.00, and its charges page notes that HST applies where applicable. Credit agency costs are added where they apply.

Water and garbage work differently, and the difference decides who pays. Toronto bills water and solid waste on one utility bill, and that bill goes to the property owner or a designate on file. A landlord can add a tenant or agent as the recipient. So the City's New Account Setup Fee of $90.74 per new account lands on an owner, not on most renters.

The garbage bin is the surprise. It is not a container, it is an annual charge that follows the address. In 2026 it runs $317.85 for a small bin up to $607.86 for an extra-large, with all four sizes in the table above. On top of it sits $23.23 a year for oversized and metal item collection, charged to every home whether or not you use it. Upsizing later costs $29.29 and downsizing is free. Do not take bins with you: the City says they stay with the address, and a new occupant who finds none can open an account for them.

Two costs that only hit new owners

Moving the accounts into your name is not free. The City charges $51.61 to change ownership on a property tax account and $51.56 on a utility account. Asked separately that is $51.61 + $51.56 = $103.17. Asked at the same time, the City charges one combined fee of $73.78 per property, so $103.17 - $73.78 = $29.39 saved by making one request. Ownership cannot be changed online. It goes in as a lawyer's letter with the roll number and the closing date.

The second one is bigger. Every Toronto residential property owner has to declare each year whether the home was occupied, and the deadline is April 30. Miss it and, in the City's words, "the City will assume the property was vacant" and send a bill. The rate has been 3 per cent of the property's Current Value Assessment since the 2024 taxation year. It matters to a buyer because the tax attaches to the property, not the person. It "forms a lien on the property, and the purchaser will be held responsible for the payment of the tax". Failing to give the City information it asks for can also mean a fine of up to $10,000.

The steps with no deadline that still cost you

A pet licence has no grace period at all. Chapter 349 of the Municipal Code says every owner of a dog "shall" have registered it and paid the fee. Section 349-19 says the same for cats. Neither gives you a window to get around to it. A licence is $25.00 for a spayed or neutered dog and $60.00 if not. A cat is $15.00 spayed or neutered and $50.00 if not. Service dogs are free, and owners aged 65 and over pay half. Not licensing may bring a $240 ticket or a maximum fine of $5,000.

Mail forwarding is worth buying before the move, not after. Canada Post's residential price for a permanent move across a provincial border is $82.75 for four months or $126.25 for twelve. Inside Ontario it is $66.50 or $100.75. Extra resident names are $5.00 each on either of those, and $7.00 on a move abroad.

If your new street has permit parking, buy a temporary permit for the truck. The 2026 fees, per space, are $20.74 for 24 hours, $29.97 for 48 hours and $44.94 for 7 days, all plus HST. You can buy up to 2 weeks ahead.

A Toronto Public Library card costs nothing if you live, work, study or own property in the city. Changing your address with the Canada Revenue Agency is free too, and the online change is immediate.

Schools have no fee either, but they do have a documents trap. The Toronto District School Board wants proof of age plus two proofs of address, one from each of two categories. A lease, deed, mortgage statement or property tax notice covers the first. A hydro, water, residential phone, cable or internet bill covers the second, as does a home, tenant or auto insurance policy. It refuses a driver's licence, a health card, a credit card statement and a cell phone bill for either. Section 21 (1) of the Education Act makes a child aged six to eighteen attend on every school day "unless excused under this section". Section 21 (2) excuses satisfactory instruction at home, sickness, and living too far from a school with no board transport. So the real deadline is your child's first school day here.