About Ajax

About Ajax

Ajax                                                  Average Price

 

Detached                                                            $413,320

Semi-Detached                                                 $325,000

Freehold Townhouse                                       $277,927

Condo-Townhouse                                           $233,733

 

 

 

 

Ajax, Ontario.

 

Ajax (2006 population 90,167) is a town in the Durham Region in the Greater Toronto Area.

The town is named for the HMS Ajax a Royal Navy cruiser that served in World War II and is commonly called “Ajax by the Lake. Ajax is a part of the Greater Toronto Area. It is approximately 25 kilometres (16 mi) east of Toronto on the shores of Lake Ontario and is bordered by the City of Pickering to the west and north, and the Town of Whitby to the east. The town of Ajax celebrates its military history at the waterfront memorial.

History  Before the Second World War, the territory in which Ajax is situated was a rural part of the township of Pickering. The town itself was first established in 1941 when a Defence Industries Limited (D.I.L.) 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; 50 km (31 mi) of railroad and 50 km (31 mi) of roads. The entire D.I.L. plant site included some 12 km2 (5 sq mi). People came from all over Canada to work at D.I.L.

The burgeoning community received its name in honour of the first significant British naval victory of the war. 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, the University of Toronto leased much of the D.I.L. plant to house the flood of newly discharged soldiers 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 there.

Following the departure of the University of Toronto, 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 wartime base for its post-war foundation.

From 1941 to 1950, Ajax had no local municipal government of its own. In 1950, as a result of a petition, the community became the Corporation of the Improvement District of Ajax with three trustees appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor in Council. 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; this also included the remote lakeside Town of Pickering Beach. The Region and Town both officially came into being on January 1, 1974.

Modern status

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 and its environs. Many residents commute to work in Toronto or other municipalities in Durham Region.

The following is a summary of major changes in the past several decades:

  • Recent rapid low density population growth. Only one greenfield area of the Town remains, located in the north western corner of the town. 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.
  • The town's very auto dependent urban form, as well as that of its neighbour municipalities, has resulted in steady increases in traffic congestion with few realistic alternatives to automobile travel. There are long-term plans to widen regional roads and Highway 401, extend Highway 407, but this essentially represents status quo development. Increases in Durham Region Transit service, ongoing efforts to improve cycling and walking conditions, and the above noted intensification initiatives may alleviate this to some degree.
  • Increasing multiculturalism, with many young ethnic professionals moving into the newer northern parts of Ajax.

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 current council was elected in October 2010. The members of the council are:

Mayor: Steve Parish

Members of Council:

  • Shaun Collier - Regional Councillor, Wards 1 and 2
  • Colleen Jordan - Regional Councillor, Wards 3 and 4
  • Marilyn Crawford - Councillor, Ward 1
  • Renrick Ashby - Councillor, Ward 2
  • Joanne Dies - Councillor, Ward 3
  • Pat Brown - Councillor, Ward 4

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. The last municipal election was held on October 25, 2010. A by-election was held on March 1, 2008 to fill the Ward 2 council seat left vacant after councillor Joe Dickson was elected to the Legislature for Ajax-Pickering in the October 2007 provincial election.

Demographics

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f1/Ajax_VisMin_2006.jpg/220px-Ajax_VisMin_2006.jpg

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Visible minority population as of the 2006 Census.

 

Census

Population

1961

7,755

1971

12,515

1981

25,474

1991

57,350

2001

73,753

2006

90,167

According to the 2006 Canadian Census, Ajax has a population of 90,167. Of those people, 36% are a visible minority. The largest visible minority groups are Blacks (13%), South Asians (11%), Filipinos (3%), and Chinese (2%).

Economy

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 1969, 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 1980s 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 Avenue and Kingston Road.

The 1970s saw the beginning of many physical changes to the face of Ajax. New subdivisions spread over vacant land in central Ajax. The early 1980s brought extensive development to the southern part of Ajax with large, upscale housing units constructed along Lake Driveway.

The recession of the early 1980s did not stop residential development in Ajax. Westney Heights started north of Highway 2 and offered home buyers low interest rate mortgages while interest rates were then 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.

Health care

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 began in 2007, although that has been marred by the highly controversial closure of the 3 West Mental Health ward in 2008, which was originally to be part of the expansion.

Famous people and groups