Toronto’s bike sharing program will now operate on a stable financial footing with the help of a new corporate sponsorship by TD Bank, the Toronto Parking Authority (TPA) has announced.

Bike Share Toronto,which is adding 20 new stations next year and will grow again in 2016, is expanding its territory beyond the current 80 downtown locations to places like Liberty Village and the Distillery District, putting them in reach of the Pan Am Games sites. Each station holds 10 bikes.

The city wouldn’t disclose how much TD Bank is paying to have its name on the bikes and contribute to operating the system, but Lorne Persiko, president of TPA, said it is in excess of the program’s operating cost of about $650,000 annually. The sponsorship agreement is for two years.

Several city councillors have agreed to contribute some of their ward’s Section 37 money — funds developers pay the city for certain exemptions from planning rules — for more stations in 2016.

Kristyn Wong-Tam (Ward 27, Toronto-Centre-Rosedale) said she is using $1.1 million of Section 37 funds to build 22 bike-share stations. The process will involve moving some of the existing stations in her ward farther from downtown, to enhance the area served by bike sharing, and then later replacing those facilities. Combined with other councillors’ contributions, “It is not an insignificant sum,” she said.

The expansion cost for each station is about $50,000, she said. The Section 37 funds can only be used to build infrastructure, so the new sponsor will pay to operate the new bike stations.

“Those who actually work in the financial district, who pick up their bike-share bicycles, have to park their bicycles when they get to Bloor and then take transit or find another mode of getting home. So at the end of the day, the expansion is absolutely key to making sure this is a financially viable system,” said Wong-Tam.

Persiko said TPA is waiting until 2016 to build those additional stations because it wants to put out tenders for the bikes and infrastructure, which until now have been supplied by Quebec-based Public Bike System Company, the creator of Bixi, Bike Share Toronto’s predecessor.

At the city hall announcement Tuesday, Mayor John Tory said, “it is one example of the kinds of partnerships I would like to flourish across the city in a host of programs.”

The mayor said he will be knocking on the doors of business and unions and asking them to step up and support city improvements and youth employment initiatives.

“Great cities have an integrated transportation system, and that includes Toronto,” said Tory, who in less than a week has headlined announcements on tougher traffic enforcement, expediting his SmartTrack transit plan and all-door boarding on the overcrowded King streetcars.

The sponsorship deal is “considerably north” of previous bike-share sponsorship of $200,000 a year between Desjardins and Telus, said Jared Kolb, of the Cycle Toronto advocacy group.

It’s great that Toronto’s program is now financially stable, he said.

However, he said, “Montreal’s got over 400 stations; New York’s got over 300 stations; we’ve got 80. We’ve got a long way to go before we’re going to be a world-class bike-share system.”

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Like public transit, bike sharing is often considered a public good that doesn’t need to make money.

“I don’t think we expect public transit to make money,” said Kolb, who wants more stations downtown and wants the program extended to the west and east of its current concentration, which is between Bathurst and Jarvis Sts. and south of Bloor St.

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