Ontario upgrading three wildfire response centres

The Ontario government is putting $47 million toward improving three forest fire response centres in the province.

The upgrades, part of a one-time investment, will include:

• Renovating an existing building and purchasing a nearby aviation hangar for the  facility at the Greater Sudbury Airport ($25 million)
• Relocating the Haliburton Fire Management Headquarters to the nearby Haliburton/Stanhope Municipal Airport ($12.2 million)
• Rebuilding the existing Armstrong Fire Attack Base ($9.65 million)

Construction at all three locations is expected to begin later this year and the projects will each follow Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) principles. The projects are expected to be completed in the first half of 2016, the spring of 2015 and September 2014, respectively.

Combined, the centres provide forest fire response to about 90 million hectares of Crown land, according to the provincial government.

On average, Ontario’s fire program suppresses 1,100 wildfires each year with the help of water bombers, firefighters and support staff. The province has more than 750 highly-trained FireRangers and another 320 firefighters available from the private sector to fight wildfires.