Ajax (; 2021 population: 126,666) is a waterfront town in Durham Region in Southern Ontario, Canada, located in the eastern part of the Greater Toronto Area.
The town is named for , a Royal Navy cruiser that served in the Second World War. It is approximately 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.
History
Indigenous peoples were active in the watersheds of the Duffins Creek and the Carruthers Creek since the Archaic period (7000–1000 BCE), although they did not build any major settlements in the area, presumably because of the poor navigability of these streams. In 1760, French Sulpician missionaries from Ganatsekwyagon reached the Duffins Creek area, but did not settle there.
After the British conquest of New France in 1760, the area became part of the Pickering Township. Mike Duffin, an Irish fur trader, is the earliest known European to have settled in the area, in the 1770s. The conversion of the main local trail into the Kingston Road in 1799 contributed to increased settlement in what is now Ajax. In the first half of the 19th century, the Pickering Village, now a neighbourhood in Ajax, evolved as the major population centre of the Township, supported by a timber and agricultural boom. In 1807, Timothy Rogers led Quaker families to settle in the area, and built saw and grist mills on the banks of the Duffins Creek. The War of 1812 increased military traffic on the Kingston Road, resulting in a better-maintained road, and leading to further development of the area.
In the mid-19th century, Audley, a smaller community, emerged as a stopover on the route to the port of Whitby. By the 20th century, much of the area of present-day Ajax had been converted into farmland. In 1926, James Tuckett of Toronto bought lakeshore farmland, and started the development of the Pickering Beach cottage community, which later became a permanent settlement.
After the start of the World War II in 1939, the Government of Canada expropriated most of the farmland in what is now southern part of Ajax, to establish the Defence Industries Limited Pickering Works munitions plant. Operated by Defence Industries Limited (DIL), the government-owned plant employed workers from different parts of Canada. The plant site, along with the residences and the facilities established for the workers, evolved into a self-contained community, whose residents called it a "village". As part of a contest, the DIL employee Frank Holroyd suggested the name "Ajax" for the community, in honour of the British warship HMS Ajax which had damaged German Panzerschiffe Admiral Graf Spee at the Battle of the River Plate in 1939.
After the plant shut down in 1945, the site was used as a war surplus warehouse and sales outlet, a University of Toronto campus (1946–1949), and a holding camp for war refugees from Europe (1949–1953). The government mandated the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) to develop the site and its surrounding area into a modern industrial town. George Finley, the CMHC manager of the area, planned new housing subdivisions, commercial centres, and industrial areas.
In 1950, Ajax was incorporated as an Improvement District, a form of local administration managed by the Lieutenant Governor's appointees. The Improvement District Board created the community's first by-laws and hired employees for the local administration. In August 1954, as a result of a campaign by the Ajax Citizens Association, the Ontario Municipal Board declared Ajax a town, granting it full municipal status. The first town council members were elected on 11 December 1954, and assumed office on 1 January 1955. The first mayor of the town was Benjamin de Forest Bayly, better known as Pat Bayly.
In the early 1970s, the Metropolitan Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (MTRCA) acquired much of the land along the lakeshore. In the Pickering Beach area, several homes, a church, and a school were demolished to make way for a parkland.
On 1 January 1974, Ajax became a part of the newly formed Regional Municipality of Durham, which manages functions common to multiple municipalities in the region. The boundaries of the town of Ajax were expanded to include several areas of the former Pickering Township, including Pickering Village, Pickering Beach, and Audley.
In 1995, Ajax was the first community along the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail to erect a pedestrian-only asphalt waterfront trail. In 2018, the trail was named William Parish Waterfront Trail to honour the founding mayor of the town.
Geography
Ajax is bordered to the west and north by the City of Pickering, to the east by the Town of Whitby and to the south by Lake Ontario.
Neighbourhoods The town is made up of the following neighbourhoods:
Applecroft Audley North Audley Road Business Area Audley South Carruthers Creek Carruthers Creek Business Area Central Employment Area Clover Ridge Deer Creek Discovery Bay Downtown Duffins Bay Duffins Crossing Hermitage Lake Vista Lakeside Meadow Ridge Memorial Village Midtown Nottingham Pickering Beach Riverside Salem Business Area Salem Heights South Greenwood Southwood Village, better known as Pickering Village Westney Heights
Downtown Ajax Ajax Council and a private developer entered into an agreement in 2012 for the purchase and sale of of vacant town-owned land at the corner of Bayly Street and Harwood Avenue. Called "Pat Bayly Square", it will provide residential, retail and office space, as well as a civic square and civic facility. Pat Bayly Square opened in September 2018.
Local government Ajax is governed by an elected town Council consisting of a Mayor, and local Councillors representing each of the town's three wards. In addition, three Regional Councillors each represent a ward each. The Mayor and the Regional Councillors sit on both Ajax Town Council and Durham Region Council.
The members of the council elected in the 2022 municipal election are:
Mayor: Shaun Collier
Regional Councillors: Ward 1: Marilyn Crawford Ward 2: Sterling Lee Ward 3: Joanne Dies
Councillors:
Ward 1: Rob Tyler-Morin Ward 2: Nancy Henry Ward 3: Lisa Bower
In the past, Council has sat for a three-year term, but the Ontario Legislature increased the length of municipal council terms in Ontario to four years, in 2006. In 2018, Ajax Council shifted from two regional councillors and four local councillors to three regional councillors and three local councillors.
Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Ajax had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.
According to the 2021 Census, the median age is 38.4 years, around 3 years less than the national average of 41.6 years; 18.8% of the population is under 15 years of age while 13.1% are 65 and over.
According to the 2016 Census, among those 25 to 64 years old, the highest levels of education are as follows: 66.6% of people have a post-secondary certificate, diploma, or degree, 25.3% have a high school diploma or equivalency certificate, and 8.2% have no certificate, diploma, or degree.
As of 2021, the median value of dwellings in Ajax is $850,000 compared to the provincial median value of $700,496, and the national figure of $472,000.
As of 2021, 92% of Ajax's residents are Canadian citizens, with 42% being immigrants. 8% of the population immigrated between 2011 and 2021. The main places of birth of the immigrant population are India (13%), Sri Lanka (11%), Jamaica (10%), Philippines (8%), Pakistan (8%), Guyana (6%), United Kingdom (5%), Trinidad and Tobago (4%), Afghanistan (4%), and China (3%). Among the 5010 recent immigrants, who immigrated between 2016 and 2021, 34% were from India.
Ethnicity According to the 2021 Census, the main self-reported ethnic and cultural origins included English (12%), Indian (10%), Canadian (9%), Irish (9%), Scottish (9%), Jamaican (6%), Filipino (5%), Pakistani (5%), Sri Lankan (4%), Chinese (4%), and Tamil (4%). 65% of the town's population comprises visible minority, with the biggest of these groups being South Asian (26.2%), Black (16.8%), Filipino (5.3%), Chinese (3%), West Asian (3%), Arab (2%), and Latin American (1.3%). 3% of the people identify as belonging to multiple visible minority groups. Those with only indigenous ancestry make up 0.23% of the population, while those with mixed indigenous and non-indigenous ancestry make up 1.03% of the population. Ajax has the highest Black population percentage of any major Canadian municipality (population above 100,000). + Panethnic groups in the Town of Ajax (2001−2021)Panethnicgroup20212016201120062001 European 43,415 50,450 58,145 57,125 55,280 South Asian 33,055 24,895 15,025 9,735 4,035 African 21,210 19,860 17,510 11,680 7,090 Southeast Asian 7,495 6,350 5,465 3,115 1,525 Middle Eastern 6,250 4,880 2,935 1,855 1,200 East Asian 4,240 3,790 3,065 2,430 1,570 Latin American 1,695 1,670 1,065 705 415 Indigenous 1,270 1,190 1,080 705 370 Other 7,615 6,095 4,925 2,485 2,040 Total responses 126,245 119,180 109,220 89,835 73,520 Total population 126,666 119,677 109,600 90,167 73,753 Note: Totals greater than 100% due to multiple origin responses.
Religion
According to the 2021 Census, the largest religion in Ajax is Christianity (50.83%), with Catholics making up the largest group (22.25%). The next most reported religions are Islam (14.08%) and Hinduism (11.62%). 20.77% of the population reported no religious affiliation.
Language According to the 2021 census, English is the most commonly understood language in the town, with 97.97% of the people knowing it. It is also the most common mother tongue: 64.79% of the people consider English as their only mother tongue, plus 5.75% consider English and another language as their mother tongues. Other common languages include the following:
+ Mother tongue (2021 Census) Language Population % English 89180 70.55% Tamil 6355 5.03% Urdu 4620 3.65% Tagalog (Filipino) 2840 2.25% French 2340 1.85% Dari 1910 1.51% Arabic 1540 1.22% Gujarati 1515 1.20% Spanish 1300 1.03% Mandarin 1280 1.01% Punjabi 1220 0.97% Bengali 1150 0.91% Hindi 1020 0.81% Yue (Cantonese) 1005 0.80% Italian 690 0.55%
+ Knowledge of language (2021 Census) Language Population % English 123690 97.97% French 9500 7.52% Tamil 9145 7.24% Urdu 8040 6.37% Hindi 5725 4.53% Tagalog (Filipino) 4350 3.45% Punjabi 2860 2.27% Dari 2665 2.11% Arabic 2635 2.09% Spanish 2315 1.83% Gujarati 2130 1.69% Mandarin 2030 1.61% Bengali 1780 1.41% Yue (Cantonese) 1295 1.03% Italian 1070 0.85%
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.