Ground has officially been broken at the site of Whitby’s new fire station in the rapidly expanding west end of town.
Mayor Elizabeth Roy, Whitby MPP Lorne Coe, fire Chief Michael Hickey and Ontario solicitor general Michael Kerzner, spoke at a celebration of the station’s groundbreaking on Sept. 15.
Whitby is experiencing significant growth, “and with that growth comes a responsibility to ensure that essential community services keep pace,” said Roy.
“When seconds matter most, we need to know that help is close to home,” she said. “The new fire station will do exactly that.”
In 2024, Whitby had one of the busiest fire departments in Durham Region, responding to 7,383 emergency calls, according to the town’s website.
“This ceremony is more than symbolic,” said Hickey. It represents “progress, partnership and the promise of enhanced services.”
Strategically located at the intersection of Des Newman Boulevard and Rossland Road and near growing neighbourhoods, the new station will significantly improve response times, strengthen operational readiness and ensure our firefighters have the facilities they need to strive with excellence, he said.
“As we break ground today, we’re not just building a station, we’re building capacity, resilience and trust.”
The station, which will be Whitby’s sixth, is also near the Whitby Health Centre and Highway 412, which Roy hinted could have an interchange connecting to Rossland in the future, “allowing our firefighters to respond swiftly and efficiently across the region.”
Fire Station 6 is expected to open in 2027 and create 20 new firefighter positions as well as several temporary construction-related jobs.
The town is also in the process of building a new fire training tower — set to open this year — where its firefighters will be able to practise firefighting and rescue techniques in a realistic environment.
“We have to be able to protect Ontario from a public safety perspective,” Kerzner said at the event, adding there’s no finer example anywhere in our province of that than at Whitby Fire and Emergency Services.
One of 62 action items in Whitby’s community strategic plan, council approved $17 million in funding to build the new station in May and the town purchased the nearly 3.45-acre parcel of land for it from the Ministry of Transportation in June.
The new station also aligns with the town’s climate change priorities and will include sustainable design features, said Roy.
This is a great example of what we achieve when different levels of government work together with a shared goal, she said.