The Caledon fire department has received thousands of dollars from the provincial government for the purchase of new health and safety equipment.
Dufferin-Caledon MPP Sylvia Jones marked the $152,406.13 funding allocation during a visit to Caledon Fire Station 302 on Monday, Jan. 12.
The funding, which came from the Ministry of the Solicitor General’s 2025-26 Fire Protection Grant, will cover the cost of a Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) air compressor and filling station.
“Firefighter cancer prevention and respiratory safety are top priorities for our service,” Caledon Fire Chief Dave Pelayo stated in an email. “This grant enables us to close a gap in our SCBA air management system, ensuring our firefighters can operate safely, efficiently, and in full compliance with health and safety standards.”
According to Pelayo, a SCBA air compressor and fill station is vital infrastructure that supplies firefighters with the clean, breathable air they rely on during emergencies. The system draws in outside air, compresses and filters it through multiple purification stages to remove moisture and contaminants. Built-in monitoring and safety controls continuously check air quality and automatically shut the system down if conditions are unsafe, ensuring reliable access to air in smoke-filled or hazardous environments.
Deputy Fire Chief Samantha Hoffmann noted, in a separate interview, that this unit will be the fourth of its kind for the department.
“This will be our fourth (unit), we do have three, and this one is going in Caledon East,” Hoffmann said. She added that this station serves as a vital refilling hub for substations across Caledon’s large geographic footprint.
Last August, the province doubled the grant funding from $10 million to $20 million. MPP Jones noted, in a news release, that “this expanded funding ensures fire departments across Dufferin-Caledon are better protected, prepared and equipped to respond to emergencies.”
According to Karol Jakubczak, Jones’s constituency assistant, the individual grant amounts were determined by the number of active fire stations operated by each municipality, with the “minimum equal per-station allocation being $16,000.” Caledon operates nine stations, resulting in the $152,406.13 allocation.
Saddam Khussain, a spokesperson for the solicitor general, noted in an email that all 380 eligible municipalities in Ontario submitted applications and were approved for funding for the 2025-26 grant year.
Khussain further explained that the grant is available both for new and existing initiatives. Eligible projects include cancer prevention equipment and specialized personalized protective equipment, equipment and supplies for lithium-ion battery incident response, and funding minor infrastructure modernizations such as upgraded broadband and internet connectivity.
While the funding covers the immediate equipment request, Chief Pelayo noted, in the email to the Caledon Enterprise, that the fire department will continue to assess its needs and “if required, bring a report to council for additional funding in the future.”
In December 2024, Caledon received $74,000 for firefighter coveralls that reduce the risk of exposure to cancer-causing materials.