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A Town Called Ajax
T
he town 0f Ajax was first established in 1941 when a Defence Industries Limited shell plant was constructed and a townsite grew around the plant. By 1945 the plant had filled 40 million shells; employed over 9,000 people at peak production; boasted of its own water and sewage treatment plants; a school population of over 600; 30 miles of railroad and 30 miles of roads. The entire D.I.L. plant site included some 2,985 acres. People came from all over Canada to work at D.I.L.
This enormous burgeoning war plant community needed a name. The name was supplied by the first significant British naval victory of World War II. From December 13 to December 19, 1939, a flotilla of British warships - HMS Ajax, HMS Exeter and HMS Achilles — commanded by Commodore Henry Harwood — engaged and routed the powerful German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee at the Battle of the River Plate, near the Uruguayan port of Montevideo in South America. Ajax was chosen as the name of this war-born community.
After the War ended, the University of Toronto leased much of the D.I.L. plant to house the flood of newly discharged men from the Armed Forces who had enrolled as engineering students. War machines were moved out and the buildings were converted to classrooms and laboratories. By 1949, the last year of the University of Toronto, Ajax Division, some 7,000 engineering students had received their basic training here.
After the University of Toronto left, the town's growth was largely due to the vision of George W. Finley of Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation, and Ajax became a planned modern community using the war time base for its post-war foundation.
From 1941 to 1950, Ajax had no local municipal government of its own, and was part of the Township of Pickering. Then in 1950, as a result of a petition of its citizens, Ajax, by order of the Ontario Municipal Board, became the Corporation of the Improvement District of Ajax with three trustees appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor in Council. The first trustees were: Benjamin de Forest Bayly, Chairman; John Mills, Vice-Chairman; and W.W. Rideout. These trustees acted as Council, School Board, Library Board and every other board that a municipality required. The Chairman performed all the duties of a mayor. It fell to these men to enact the first by-laws of Ajax and to set up its first municipal administration. Two key men employed by the trustees were Bolton C. Falby, Clerk-Treasurer and Charles H. Reed, Works Superintendent.
By 1953, the desire for full and active participation by its citizens in an elected council and school board was strong. The Ajax Citizens' Association, formed by many civic-minded persons, presented a brief to the Ontario Municipal Board urging that the Improvement District of Ajax become the Corporation of the Town of Ajax. The Municipal Board approved this step, and on December 13, 1954, the people elected the first Town Council and the first Public School Board.
On June 22, 1973, the Ontario Legislature enacted Bill 162 to amalgamate the Town of Ajax and the Village of Pickering and annex certain portions of the Township of Pickering to the Town of Ajax, as part of the creation of the new Durham Region.
Ajax Today
Today, Ajax is commonly considered part of the Greater Toronto Area, in the eastern part of the Golden Horseshoe region.
As is true for most suburban areas in the Greater Toronto Area, Ajax has grown considerably since the 1980s. What was once a small town mostly surrounded by agricultural areas has increasingly become a bedroom community to Toronto, Ontario and its environs. Many residents commute to work in Toronto or other municipalities in Durham Region.
Rapid population growth leading to suburban sprawl. As the town becomes increasingly built-out, the Town is attempting to increase intensity of development, particularly in the downtown area near Harwood Avenue north of Bayly. However, development in Ajax still principally consists of single-family detached houses on separate lots, and so the fundamental nature of the town seems fixed for the near future. Increased traffic congestion, aggravated by the relatively narrow aspect of Highway 401 through Durham Region, compared to other parts of the GTA, as well as limited capacity on major roads such as Taunton Road and Rossland Road. Long term plans including widening regional roads and Highway 401, extending Highway 407, and increasing Durham Region Transit service may alleviate this to some degree.
Increasing multiculturalism, with many young ethnic professionals into the newer northern parts of Ajax, making a much more heterogenous town than had previously existed. Increased crime, including personal property crimes and home invasions, reflecting changes in crime patterns in the GTA overall.
Local government
Ajax is governed by an elected town Council consisting of a Mayor, and local Councillors representing each of the town's four wards. In addition, two Regional Councillors each represent a pair of wards. The Mayor and the Regional councillors sit on both Ajax Town Council and Durham Region Council.
The next municipal election is scheduled for the common Ontario municipal election day of Monday, November 13, 2006. In the past, Council has sat for a three year term, but the Ontario Legislature has recently introduced legislation increasing the length of municipal council terms in Ontario to four years, beginning with the councils to be elected in November 2006.
Economy of Ajax
In 1945 with the closing of D.I.L., there was no industry within the Town; but in 1949 Dowty Aerospace started operations in Ajax. By 1991 major employers included Volkswagen Canada, DuPont, Paintplas, Ajax Textile, AEG Bayly Engineering and many others.
Shopping was virtually non-existent in the mid 1940s but by 1970 major shopping centres such as Ajax Plaza, Harwood Place Mall and Clover Ridge Plaza were constructed. The 80's saw an expansion of retail shopping malls to include Discovery Bay Plaza, Transit Square, Baywood Plaza, Westney Heights Plaza and most recently the Durham Centre at Harwood Avneue and Kingston Road.
The 70's saw the beginning of many physical changes to the face of Ajax. New subdivisions spread over vacant land in central Ajax. The early 1980's brought extensive development to the southern part of Ajax with large, upscale housing units constructed along Lake Driveway. The late 1970's and early 1980's saw extensive high rise development alter the skyline of Ajax.
The recession of the early 1980's did not stop residential development in Ajax. Westney Heights started north of Highway 2 and offered home buyers low interest rate mortgages while current interest rates were at an all time high of 18% to 20%. Development north of Highway 2 stretched from Church Street in Pickering Village to Harwood Avenue, with the Millers Creek development south of the highway down to the edge of Highway 401.
The need for fire protection called for construction of a new fire hall and headquarters at Centennial Road and Monarch Avenue in the 70s, and an additional fire hall at Highway 2 and Westney Road in the mid 80s.
Healthcare
The Ajax and Pickering General Hospital first opened in 1954 with 38 adult and children's beds. It was expanded to 50 beds in 1958 and a major expansion to 127 beds took place in 1964. The emergency and outpatient services were expanded in 1975. The large growth of population in the Town has prompted a further expansion. Approval was granted in the fall of 1990 to further expand. In 1999 the Hospital merged with Centenary Health Centre in Scarborough to become part of the Rouge Valley Health System. Construction on a $60 million expansion is scheduled to begin in 2007.
Transportation
In 1973, the Town of Ajax conducted a survey of potential transit ridership in Ajax. This lead to the creation of Ajax Transit with bus service beginning in 1973 under a contract with Charterways Transportation Limited, which operated service using a fleet of school buses, with heaviest ridership between the Pickering Beach area and downtown Ajax.
In the late 1970s, the Town brought the operations inhouse and began operations on the Elm, Duffins, and Beach routes, which exist to this day. In the early 1980s, the Harwood, Westney Heights, and Village routes began service. Service on the Puckrin route began in the late 1980s.
In 2001, Ajax Transit and the neighbouring Pickering Transit were amalgamated into the Ajax Pickering Transit Authority (APTA), which operated under the joint ownership and oversight of Ajax and Pickering.
In 2006, APTA was amalgamated into Durham Region Transit along with the other municipal transit services in Durham Region.
Road transportation in Ajax is dominated by Highway 401, which runs east-west through the town.
October 16, 2006 in The Town of Ajax | Permalink
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