New Durham police HQ in Oshawa key to $1.1 billion 10-year plan

More than twenty years after Durham Regional Police moved their top brass out of the region’s biggest city into new digs in the Durham Region HQ building in Whitby, the police service is making plans to return.

Durham Region Council and the Durham Regional Police Service has started looking at options to replace the current Central East Division station in downtown Oshawa, with a new combined divisional station, Police Training Centre and a full Durham Regional Police Headquarters campus somewhere in Oshawa, with a location in the north end likely.

Oshawa Councillor Brian Nichiolson said the region has “started the process” of looking for the best site in Oshawa for this new combined station and campus and has provided funds “to close any land purchase if an appropriate location is found. “

“Any further financial steps beyond the land purchase and some initial designs for the campus will be decided after the comprehensive review of financial and future capital projects that council approved last month.”

Oshawa Mayor Dan Carter, who sits on the police services board, is happy police headquarters will one day be coming home to Oshawa.

“I’m very pleased about the opportunity to be able to see a centre of excellence for Durham Regional Police being located in the great City Of Oshawa,” said Carter, who has chosen not to run for re-election this fall.

Durham Region approved, in principal, a $1.1 billion police services budget last month, with some councillors, including Regional Chair John Henry – a former mayor of Oshawa – wanting to defer the decision to the next cohort of council after October’s municipal election.

The vote was 18-9, with all six Oshawa councillors and Ajax Mayor Shaun Collier, who chairs the police services board, and Pickering Mayor Kevin Ashe, who chairs the region’s Finance Committee, voting in favour. Henry voted no.

The police budget, which is asking for 673 uniformed officers and 116 civilian positions added to the payroll over the next ten years, will still need to be formally approved in the fall.

The biggest capital ask in the long-term police budget is the new police campus in north Oshawa, which will contain the new headquarters, a divisional station, training centre, records and storage and a “community engagement” space on approximately 400,000 sq. ft. of land.

Durham Regional Police Chief Peter Moreira said in a letter to Nicholson the investments in a new headquarters and additional officers “are not about upgrades or unnecessary expansion, as some have suggested.”

“They are essential to meet out legislated obligations.”

Moreira called the future expenditure a “strategic investment” in the region’s future.

“Ideally these decisions would have been made many years ago in a different economic environment and well in advance of an election cycle,” he said. “However, these circumstances were beyond our control.”

Moreira said he recognized the “financial pressures” facing regional council, a reality seconded by Nicholson.

“Police services are important in our community (but) it is equally important that regional property taxpayers are not burdened with massive future tax hikes,” the Oshawa regional councillor said. “Finding the right balance between providing safety and services and controlling costs and taxes should and will be the main priority of the new incoming regional council. I am hopeful to be part of the new council so I may continue to work to reduce impact while still making sure our communities are safe.”

Nicholson said he has spoken to Moreira about the “critical need” to find that balance between service and cost and believes the police chief “understands that controlling expenditures and tax increases is vital in any plan moving forward.”

A staff report from the region released in May called the new police campus “the most critical investment in the service’s long-term facility plan,”  and will address urgent compliance and space deficits.

“This move is essential for community safety and Policing Act compliance, ensuring the service can deliver mandated training that current facilities cannot support. Beyond operational needs, this campus provides a permanent home for the service, offering shared spaces that promote community partnerships and strengthen public trust,” the report declared.

The current Oshawa police station on Centre Street in the city’s downtown served as the headquarters for the Durham Regional Police Service from when the force was created in 1973 until the command centre was moved into the Region of Durham Headquarters building in 2004.

Oshawa police station