Consolidation of all Durham Region fire dispatch services in Oshawa now official

Oshawa Fire Services is now handling dispatch services for all of Durham Region, a process that began two years ago and culminated in late March when the Ajax and Pickering fire departments agreed to consolidate dispatch and alerting operations.

The merger allows Oshawa to serve as the sole municipality dispatching and alerting for Durham’s five fire services.

“The consolidation of our dispatch services with Ajax and Pickering is a great example of collaboration,” said Mayor Dan Carter. “We are honoured to have Oshawa Fire Services leading the way by dispatching for the entire Durham Region.”

The City of Pickering signed off on outsourcing the dispatching of fire calls to Oshawa Fire earlier this spring, a move that began a year ago when Ajax (which had been handling fire dispatch for Pickering) teamed up with Oshawa (which had been providing the service for Whitby, Clarington and Durham’s three northern communities) to handle all fire dispatch services for Durham at one command centre located at Oshawa Fire Headquarters.

The streamlined system had its origins in 2022 when the CRTC mandated new standards for dispatch computer systems by March 2025, requiring Oshawa to commit $2.245 million in the 2023 budget for the new Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG911) – the new, modern system replacing the old 911 system.

The new system is far bigger than the City required, prompting the Town of Ajax to contact Oshawa to see if the two municipalities could work something out.

“Ajax reached out to us about sharing services and because we had the space, our staff thought it was a good idea,” Safety and Facilities Committee Chair Brian Nicholson said last year.

With operating costs split between the municipalities (with the three mostly rural townships counting as one for cost purposes), the new partnership could save Oshawa as much as 28 per cent, with costs being split six ways instead of four.

And because the Town of Ajax would no longer have to shell out for the new dispatch system, it would save the money on that end as well.

The new NG 9-1-1 system will enable new methods of communication such as text, photos and video, providing greater “situational awareness and enable efficient sharing of information to deliver the right resources to the right location, in the fastest way possible to people in need of emergency response,” Oshawa staff explained in a report.

Residents will be able to stream videos from an emergency incident, send photos of accidents, a fleeing suspect, or send personal medical information, including accessibility needs, which will aid in reducing response time for emergency personnel.

The potential consolidation would provide a coordinated fire dispatch response which would also allow better co-ordination and quicker responses for major incidents and natural disasters and improve co-ordination of firefighting in border areas, the report stated.

“Safety of our community and surrounding municipalities is paramount,” said Nicholson, who chairs the City’s Safety and Facilities Committee. “The overall goal of NG911 is to make emergency responses faster and more effective and improve overall safety for everyone.”

Over the last several years many municipalities have undertaken the process of consolidating their respective fire dispatch centres into one centre to achieve resource and cost efficiencies, including the Region of Waterloo, which amalgamated their emergency dispatch services in 2019.

All the fire dispatch consolidations are expected to lead to greater efficiencies, cost reductions and improvements in public safety, as well as enhanced collaboration and communication between local fire and other emergency services.

Oshawa is committed to establishing a centre of excellence for 9-1-1 fire dispatch operations, serving all of Durham Region with cutting-edge, secure, and resilient infrastructure and systems, said Councillor Rick Kerr, the Vice-Chair of the Safety and Facilities Services Committee.

“Oshawa is leading the way with this dispatch unification,” Kerr noted. “This merge of services will greatly increase the safety of and service to our community and to those in Durham Region.”

Pickering Fire Chief Steve Boyd (left), Oshawa Fire Chief Stephen Barkwell and Ajax Fire Chief Aaron Burridge at Oshawa Fire Headquarters. The three fire services have consolidated their dispatch operations.