Ajax business services for the Town of Ajax located in Ontario, Ajax business directory
Ajax business services from Automobiles to sporting goods.
Ajax is located in the GTA.
Ajax business comminity is very diverse. Ultimately, business is about people. Ajax is a community that is highly skilled and educated. Approximately 57 per cent of our local labour force of 41,600 has some post-secondary education. Local industry has access to a skilled regional labour force of 3 million. Our regionally competitive wage rates make Ajax attractive for employees at every level and help to ensure a supply of skilled and qualified workers for businesses in the community.

City Hall
Official Town of Ajax Web site
65 Harwood Ave. S.
Ajax, ON  L1S 2H9

Ajax (2006 population 90,167) is a town located in the Golden Horseshoe of Southern Ontario, Canada.

Ajax located in Durham Region, The Town of Ajax . Ajax is considered to be part of the Greater Toronto area and is bordered by the City of Pickering to the West and the Town of Whitby to the East. Ajax Residents enjoy a range of municipal services of city quality in a mid-sized town setting. Ajax's 6 k.m. of waterfront remains largely undeveloped for the enjoyment of everyone. 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 to the north and the Town of Whitby to the east.

The people in the town of Ajax enjoy a high standard of living and a quality of community life that sets us apart. It is a distinction that is both well deserved and highly valued. Our recreational opportunities are superb. Residents and visitors can enjoy our five golf courses, Picov Downs - Ontario’s only quarter horse race-track and future slot facility or stroll along the magnificent and pristine Lake Ontario waterfront and Greenwood Conservation Area. Ajax also offers retail shopping experiences at the 1 million square foot Durham Centre to our unique retail areas such as our Village shopping area that attracts visitors from across the region. The Town is also home to the Ajax-Pickering Health Centre which is currently undergoing a $59 million expansion and redevelopment.

History of Ajax

Ajax was incorporated as a Town in 1955, but long before that, several small settlements and farms were found in the area. In 1941, the largest defence industry in North America was located in this area to provide supplies for the Allies in World War II. The founding of Defence Industries Limited (DIL) was really the start of Ajax as we know it. As thousands of workers and their families settled in the immediate area, communities developed and a post office was needed, which meant the area needed a name. A competition among DIL employees resulted in the name Ajax being chosen, in honour of one of the three ships that in 1939 had engaged and routed the German battleship Graf Spee at the Battle of the River Plate near Uruguay.

After the War, the University of Toronto leased many of the DIL buildings for a new flood of engineering students, and a new population base was added to the area. The community continued to grow and by the early 1950s it was clear that it was time for incorporation as a municipality. This occurred in 1955. Twenty years later, the small community of Pickering Village and parts of Pickering Township were amalgamated with Ajax, forming the Town’s current boundaries.

The Ajax Historical Board (now called Heritage Ajax) has published a history book, A Town Called Ajax, which is available at the Town Hall and all library branches. The Ajax Public Library has developed a local history web page, www. Pada.ca, that provides access to local history and historical documents about Ajax and Pickering.

How it Started

On September 10, 1939, Canada declared war on Germany. On that day, the present site of the Town of Ajax was peaceful rolling farmland nestled on the edge of Lake Ontario in Pickering Township.
 
It had been to this area, 150 years prior, that the first white settlers had arrived to start their new life in a new land.
 
All this was to change very quickly. In 1941, this farmland became the site of Defence Industries Limited (D.I.L.), Pickering Works. Thus began a vast shell filling plant which before 1945 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 H. Harwood - engaged and routed the powerful German pocket battleship Graf Spee at the Battle of the River Plate, near the Uraguayan port of Montevideo in South America. The name Ajax and the names of her sister ships became world wide symbols of courage and determination. Ajax was chosen, therefore, as the name of this war-born community.
 
In 1945, World War II ended, but not Ajax. As the young veterans returned home, accommodation was required for thousands of additional university students. Consequently, the University of Toronto leased much of the D.I.L. plant to house the new flood of engineering students. War machines were moved out and the buildings were converted to classrooms and laboratories. The residences that had housed war workers now housed university students. All the facilities of the University of Toronto were duplicated at Ajax. By 1949, the last year of the University of Toronto, Ajax Division, some 7,000 engineering students had received their basic training here.
 
But what was to become of Ajax? Many people who worked or lived in Ajax during D.I.L. or university days wanted to remain here. Due largely to the vision of George W. Finley of Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Ajax became a planned modern community using the war time base for its post-war foundation. The sword was now beaten into ploughshares. Post-war Ajax began its growth. Ajax business services
 
Industry and people came from everywhere to take advantage of the many assets of Ajax - its schools, its churches, its hospital, its steam plant, its comprehensive planning, its geography - close to Toronto but setting a separate pace - and its friendly, industrious, involved citizens.

Business and Industry

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, and with its arrival the word spread that Ajax was a town with good attraction for industry. In 1979 there were 196 industries operating within the Town. 1991 shows a total of 217 industries with some major employers such as Volkswagen Canada, Chrysler 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 80s saw an expansion of retail shopping malls to include Discovery Bay Plaza, Transit Square,Baywood Plaza, Westney Heights Plaza plus many small retail strip units located throughout the Town.
 
The 70s 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 late 1970s and early 1980s saw extensive high rise development alter the skyline of Ajax and by 1990 the exclusive Breakers condominium complex at Harwood and Lake Driveway had been constructed.
 
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 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 Ajax Public Library expanded its facility in the mid 1970s to serve the expanded population. The growth in Ajax between 1980 and 1990 prompted the Library Board to plan a further expansion. A new main branch opened in 2003, for a total of three branches: the large main branch next to Town Hall, the McLean Branch within McLean Community Centre, and the smaller Village Branch in Pickering Village.  Ajax business directory
 
Recreation facilities expanded from the original 1966 Ajax Community Centre to include a full size Olympic swimming pool, squash courts, workout room and more meeting rooms. When Pickering Village became part of Ajax, the Village Arena became part of the Town's recreational facilities. New residents to Ajax with young families prompted the development of baseball diamonds, soccer fields, playgrounds, parks, bicycle paths and waterfront walkways to satisfy the hunger for sport and leisure. The community grew so fast that in 1990 a $14-million expansion and renovation to the Ajax Community Centre was approved. A new centre, the McLean Community Centre, was opened in 1994, and underwent a $4-million expansion that opened in 2001.
 
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 a further fire hall at Highway 2 and Westney Road in the mid 80s.
 
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.
 
As the Town started to expand, it became obvious to Council that some means of public transportation was necessary. Following a modest beginning, Ajax Transit continued to expand to meet the public transit needs of Ajacians. The local transit system was fully integrated with the schedule of the GO Train when it officially began service in December 1988. Transit Square, with its many amenities, is indeed one of the most inviting of all GO stations in Ontario. In early 2000, the Councils of Ajax and Pickering agreed to merge their transit systems, and Ajax Pickering Transit Authority was created.
 
The Ballycliffe Lodges nursing home on Station Street was once the booming Carousel Motel with a large dining room, entertainment and meeting rooms. The Royal Canadian Legion on Hunt Street was expanded in the mid 1970s. The anchor that presently sits at the front of the building was presented to the Ajax Branch in 1987 by the British Admiralty. The anchor is from the HMS Ajax, which was decommissioned in 1985. 
 
During the 1970s the Durham School Board built Duffins Bay Public School to serve the growth in the south-western area of Ajax. As development in this location of the Town neared completion, Lakeside Public School was opened in 1986. To cope with the phenomenal growth in the Westney Heights subdivision area, Westney Heights Public school opened in 1984, to be followed by Lester B. Pearson Public School, which came on stream in 1988. Residential development immediately to the west and north of the Old Village, previously well served by an enlarged Lord Elgin Public School, brought about the opening of the Roland Michener Public School in 1988. In 1991 Cadarackque Public School opened to serve the area south of Highway 2 and east of Pickering Beach Road.
 
During the 70s the Durham Region Separate School Board demolished the original St. Bernadette's School and built a large new addition to its other school on the same site. In the next decade St. James Catholic School was built at the corner of Harwood Avenue South and Clover Ridge Road West. Denis O'Connor High School was relocated to Ajax from its Whitby location. During 1991 construction of St. Catherine of Sienna Catholic School began in the Westney Heights area of the Town. Despite the addition of all these new schools, the growing school population cannot be accommodated without recourse being taken to the use of portables which surround the main buildings of virtually all schools. Ajax business services
 
Since the 70s when both St. Bernadette's Church and St. Timothy's built additions or made renovations, St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church built an addition. The Ajax Alliance Church, Pickering Village United Church and the Christian Life centre opened their doors to serve the spiritual needs of the citizens of our growing Town. 1991 saw the start of renovations to the Church of the Holy Trinity and St. George's in Pickering Village.
 
The restaurant scene in Ajax has seen many changes over the years. However, it was with the opening of a number of fast food outlets - Mary Browns Fried Chicken, McDonalds, Burger King, Scott's Chicken Villa, Pizza Hut and Tim Horton's - that Ajax youth felt that "Ajax had arrived"! Now, the town seems to have its own location for every fast-food restaurant available.
 
Administrative officials of Ajax have always played a very significant part in the Town's history. The 1970s saw changes here, too. After serving Ajax well since 1966, Mondeau Beauchamp resigned in 1973 and later became a Development Officer for the Region of Durham. In the same year, Albert Hodges became the Clerk-Treasurer. In 1973, David J. Low was appointed Chief Administrative Officer to oversee the Town's growing administrative staff. In 1974, the Clerk-Treasurer position was split. Albert Hodges assumed the duties of Clerk and H.E. "Ward" Irwin the duties of Treasurer. Ajax business directory
 
To service the needs of an expanding Town population, the Town staff and administrative personnel increased from approximately 120 in 1980 to about 300 in 2000, with new departments such as Business Development, Human Resources and Transit being formed.