The Big Move is the regional transportation plan (RTP) published by Metrolinx for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) in Ontario, Canada.

[1] It builds on the $11.5 billion MoveOntario 2020 commitment from the Government of Ontario announced on 15 June 2007, and includes new projects to support that initiative.

There were also various transportation system concepts that were modelled and evaluated based on resulting transit ridership, urban congestion, and the emission of greenhouse gas and other air pollutants.

[6] The region is becoming increasingly dependent and designed for automobiles, and traffic congestion is already costing commuters and the economy billions of dollars every year.

The proposed regional rapid transit and highway network was expected to achieve significant benefits, even with the additional population.

[15] Union Station is Canada's busiest passenger facility and "the heart of the GTHA's transportation system", handling 240,000 people daily, or 65 million annually.

[16] However, it was forecast in 2011 that passenger traffic was expected to quadruple in the following 25 years as a result of improvements that are called for in the Big Move plan, and Union Station would be at or over capacity without dramatic modifications.

[16][17] Furthermore, being a National Historic Site that was built and opened in 1927, the station had been showing its age: peeling paint, cracked and damaged floors, leaky roofs, and crowded and inefficient passenger concourse spaces that were designed in the 1970s.

[18][19] The current work being undertaken includes excavation work to dramatically expand the existing GO and Via Rail concourses and create a floor dedicated to retail space, establishing new connections to the PATH network, increasing the number of entrances, implementing energy efficiency measures and restoring heritage elements.

[19] Future work could include a new train tunnel for the GO Transit Lakeshore lines, with a new station being built slightly east of Union.

[25] The Big Move was to be accompanied by an investment strategy, to ensure that capital costs for the GTHA's regional transportation system were funded in a sustainable way.

[31] In March 2014, Wynne rejected the proposal to raise taxes to fund the RTP outright, in the lead-up to the 2014 Ontario general election.

[32] A formal Investment Strategy has not been implemented to date, and the Ontario government has opted to raise funds for transportation project through its green bond program and the partial sale of Hydro One.