The Consumers' Gas Company

The Consumers' Gas Company was founded in 1848, one of Toronto's oldest surviving corporate institutions, established specifically to manufacture and supply gas for the city's new street lighting system at a time when Toronto's streets after dark were otherwise almost entirely dark. Gas street lamps, lit and extinguished daily by company workers making rounds through the city, represented a significant public safety and quality-of-life improvement for a rapidly growing 19th-century town.

From street lamps to a modern utility

As electric lighting gradually replaced gas lamps through the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Consumers' Gas shifted its business toward supplying gas for heating and industrial use rather than street lighting, growing into a major regional utility serving homes and businesses across the Toronto area. The company changed ownership and names multiple times over subsequent decades, eventually becoming part of what is now Enbridge Gas, though the underlying gas distribution network in much of Toronto still traces its origins back to the pipes Consumers' Gas first laid in the 19th century.

Sources

• The Canadian Encyclopedia — Consumers' Gas Company
• Wikipedia — Enbridge Gas

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