Minister of Home Affairs, Hon. Robeson Benn, accompanied by Consulate General (ag) Grace Joseph, Executive Assistant to the CG, Ms. Nutana Singh, and active diaspora member Mr. Mahesh Ramdeo, visited the Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury’s recently commissioned fire station on Thursday, March 9, 2023.

The delegation was welcomed by Bradford West Gwillimbury Mayor Mr. James Leduc, Fire Chief Mr. Brent Thomas, and Deputy Fire Chief Mr. Steve Hall and given a guided tour of the new facility along with insights into its operation.

During brief discussions, Mayor Leduc, Mr. Thomas, and Mr. Hall expressed their readiness to collaborate with Guyana’s Fire and Rescue Service, which was lauded by Minister Benn.

The collaboration aims to provide opportunities to create innovative responses to the changing challenges faced by firefighters while strengthening future resilience, effectiveness, and efficiency to deliver the highest quality service to the Guyanese public.

The new state-of-the-art 19,000-square-foot facility, which opened in June 2022, was designed with diversity and inclusion in mind, as well as the future growth needs of the local fire service.

In addition to being a fully accessible building and home to the primary Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), the new building features boardrooms and a training room; a community room (available to all community members); dorms; a gym and dayroom; a kitchen and dining area for firefighters; and four oversized drive-through bays to house six apparatus, leaving one bay available for training and future growth.

Later in the day, Minister Benn made an impromptu visit to Central York Fire Services, where he was given a tour of the facility.