'It's about protecting Canadian content': Leading Canadian publishing house seeks solutions to expected rise in distribution costs

One of Canada’s leading publishing houses is worried that it may soon not be able to keep up with the rising costs of storing the hundreds of book titles it distributes, potentially impacting the availability of educational materials and trade books from coast to coast.

Officials with the University of Toronto Press (UTP), which has been distributing books for a range of independent Canadian publishers since 1975, say that the publishing house no longer has sufficient space at its 95,000-square-foot distribution centre on Dufferin Street, south of Steeles Avenue West, and is in need of a new, modern facility to accommodate the distribution of its wide range of titles.

An image of UTP's overcrowded, aging warehouse on Dufferin Street in North York. (UTP photo)

To make matters worse, the leases at three overflow sites UTP has paid to use in Newmarket, Mississauga, and Georgetown since 2018 will soon be due for renewal. Those storage costs are expected to balloon, UTP’s Vice-President of Distribution and Retail Jason Farell told CP24.com.

“All of those leases are up between 2026 and 2027 and there’s a risk of losing those sites as well,” he said.

“The best-case scenario is the costs will go up substantially. The worse-case scenario is we won’t have access to those sites at all.”

Currently, the non-profit organization distributes books and other materials for 265 independent publishers, 185 of which are Canadian. Among other things, it disseminates works by Robert Munsch, winners of Governor General’s Literary Awards winners, and Canada Reads and Giller Prize finalists to libraries, bookstores, and schools across the country.

University of Toronto Press is also one of Canada’s last remaining book distributors as many have recently shuttered their operations due to poor market conditions, most notably Thomas Allen and Son in 2023 after more than a century in business.

“This situation has gone from stress to crisis in the last 5 or so years,” Farell said.

UTP owns and has used its North York warehouse for distributing books since 1986. In addition to running out of space, Farell said that the facility requires regular costly repairs.

“As a non-profit, our money ideally could be better spent elsewhere,” he admitted.

“What we really need is a new 150,000-square-foot building for this purpose.” 

An image of UTP's overcrowded, aging warehouse on Dufferin Street in North York. (UTP photo)

As an interim solution, Farell said that UTP has begun printing books on demand but he said that is simply a way of “buying time” while a more permanent solution is sought out.

The non-profit, however, does not have the capital to take on the cost of building or purchasing a warehouse on its own.

Ultimately, it is seeking the government’s help to find a solution to its distribution problems but that has proven to be a complex task as their needs don’t fit within any defined funding models, Farell said.

Innovative partnerships and other arrangements that would keep UTP’s distribution partnerships intact and together are also not off the table, he added.

“What we’re trying to do is solve this problem. … We’re open to talking to people who have solutions,” said Farell, adding they’ve made proposals to the provincial and federal government, but have yet to receive any kind of concrete response or plan of action.

“We want to make sure we’ve exhausted all the options before we have to make some very difficult decisions. We want to put up a good fight to keep book distribution in Canada.”

An image of UTP's overcrowded, aging warehouse on Dufferin Street in North York. (UTP photo)

Toronto Coun. James Pasternak recently toured UTP’s warehouse space, which is in his ward.

“There’s no doubt that their whole book warehouse needs a major technological investment. It needs to be modernized,” he told CP24.com this week.

“It needs to be brought up to par to do its job effectively and efficiently in today’s retail market.”

The York Centre representative said he’s sympathetic to UTP’s situation, but noted that the city can only do so much.

“We’re not in the bail-out industry. … (The city) is limited in these kinds of situations,” Pasternak said, adding he’ll do what he can to assist UTP with advice as well as connections and referrals to key players and stakeholders.

Pasternak also said there’s a possibility that vacant lands in the Downsview area could be used to build a new “state-of-the-art” distribution centre for UTP, but that would require the support of other levels of government, especially the feds, to become a reality.

“It would be a real setback for Canadian culture and identity to lose this,” he said.

Farell said in the end if UTP can’t continue its book distribution operations, publishers may be forced to look to the U.S. for their needs, but they could face challenges with president-elect Donald Trump’s threats of increased tariffs.

“We recognize that there’s a bigger consequence here than our bottom line,” he said.

“In the end, it’s about protecting Canadian content.”

CP24 has reached out to the Ontario Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Gaming as well as Heritage Canada for comment, but we have not yet heard back.