The Ontario government has announced an investment of more than $10 million to build five training facilities and train thousands of firefighters for careers in fire and rescue services.

“Investments in firefighter training are investments in the safety and resilience of our communities,” said Premier Doug Ford. “This new funding will help ensure that our firefighters have the skills and resources they need to protect people and communities and return home safely to their families.”

The money is being provided through the province’s Skills Development Fund. Of it, $9 million is being allocated to the construction of the training centres.

Once complete, the facilities will have the capacity to train more than 28,000 firefighters over a five-year period, helping to meet the emergency response needs of growing communities across Ontario and allowing local firefighters to get the training they need closer to home.

In partnership with the Ontario Professional Fire Fighters Association, the province is also investing approximately $970,000 in a training project that will provide Fire Ground Survival training to firefighters across the Niagara, Toronto and Kingston regions.

The Town of Georgina will also receive provincial support to train and upskill its volunteer firefighters.

The new training and infrastructure funding will be allocated to organizations and municipalities as follows:

• Town of Georgina: $550,436 to support the construction of a new fire & rescue training facility.
• Town of Orangeville: $3,667,650 to support the construction of a new fire services campus to replace the existing building to train members of Orangeville Fire.
• Town of Newmarket: $865,046 to support the construction of a new fire training facility in Aurora.
• Municipality of Clarington: $3,216,384 to support the construction of a new fire training complex to help meet the community’s emergency response needs and provides effective training for future leaders in the fire department.
• Town of Hanover: $780,331 to support the construction of a new fire hall to support local training of the Hanover Fire and Rescue.
• Ontario Professional Fire Fighters Association Fire Ground Survival Train-the-Trainer Program:$970,150 to deliver fire ground survival training to career firefighters across the regions of Niagara, Toronto and Kingston.
• Town of Georgina – Community Safety Skills Development for Georgina Fire & Rescue Services:$439,373 to deliver training to volunteer firefighters.

There are about 30,000 firefighters in Ontario, including about 12,000 full-time firefighters, nearly 19,000 volunteer firefighters and more than 400 part-time firefighters.

Since its launch in 2021, Ontario’s Skills Development Fund Training Stream has helped connect more than half a million jobseekers with the skills and training they need to find careers close to home.