From abandoned weapons depots in downtown Toronto to a popular beach near Trenton that was once a bombing range, Ontario is home to more than one in five of Canada’s 800 potentially dangerous sites of unexploded wartime ordnance, a Defence department list provided to the Star reveals.

Ontario — with 10 “confirmed” locations and about 140 other sites “in assessment” — has the largest number of identified locations of any province, according to a national inventory by the Unexploded Explosive Ordnance (UXO) and Legacy Sites Program.

There are 19 designated locations in the GTA, including three former “ordnance depots” on Bay, Spadina and Fort York and a “possible bombing range” near Vaughan.

Almost all of those sitesare designated as “suspected” because historical records indicate there may be homes to unexploded ordnance. But there have been no searches at those locations to confirm any risk to the public.

“What we have here is a challenge: bringing people’s knowledge to the point where they can be safe but not scaring them,” said Jon Preston, operations manager of the DND program.

Fears that misinformation could spread has led the DND to retreat from a promise on its website to make “a public database accessible.”

As well, efforts to clean up some Ontario sites have met with opposition from a sometimes skeptical public as well as environmentalists.

Canada’s inventory of unexploded ordnance does not compare in numbers or casualties to Europe, where a much larger population is crammed into a much smaller territory that was the battlefield for two world wars.

The DND says that since 1927, there have been 15 fatalities and 20 injuries in Canada related to wartime weapons and many more injuries. Since 2005 when the department launched its UXO program, it has spent $70 million searching for unexploded ordnance, while the country’s growing population and urban sprawl were reaching long-abandoned storage sites and testing ranges.

“In the past, they were in some pretty remote areas to keep the soldiers and the training away from populated areas,” said Preston, “But time passes (and) there is a greater occurrence of events.”

Between 1944 and 1973, at least nine people were killed near Vernon, B.C., in accidents caused by buried explosives. There has not been a UXO-related death since 1997 in Lethbridge, Alta. The last known injury occurred in 2007 when a farm employee in Manitoba ran over a buried pyrotechnic device.

Preston’s team combs through archives and military records and even chats with old-timers in small towns who remember the war years.

Then they target a number of hot spots to retrieve and remove undetonated bombs and other potentially dangerous weapons.

In some instances, like the ghost town of Winisk in Ontario’s far north, ordnance turn up in unpopulated areas, making cleanup easy.

But residents near Wellers Bay on Lake Ontario, southwest of Trenton, were furious when a longtime favourite strip of boating and beach shoreline was closed to the public in 2011.

During the Second World War, the site had been the target for thousands of bombs dropped by Commonwealth aircrews on training runs.

During sweeps along the shore, DND personnel found hundreds of kilograms of weapons fragments. They warn that “the possible presence of 500-pound bombs” could be still buried underground.

Locals have been using the beach for 60 years without problems, says Daryl Kramp, the Tory MP for Prince Edward-Hastings.

“I am not satisfied they have made the case for extreme risk,” he said, skeptical about reports that up to four unaccounted large bombs may still be buried in the sand.

“They have found fragments the size of a thumbnail but can’t find a bomb the size of a small vehicle?” he said.

The DND is not backing down.

“People who choose to go onto to that beach, there is a risk,” said Preston. “I empathize with them that they have been using that site for years without any accident. But I remember growing up with my parents and not wearing seatbelts and now we realize that is not a good idea.”

In Ostrander Point in Prince Edward County, environmentalists complained contractors hired to look for unexploded ordnance at the former air force site were clearing wide sections of wildlife habitat that is home to migrating birds and endangered species.

“All the protective measures are in place,” insisted Preston. “We are doing everything we can with the environment in mind.”

The only “confirmed” UXO site in Toronto was Solway Metal Sales, a scrapyard near Bloor and Dundas.

Preston was one of the DND experts who helped clear the site in late 2012, where they found 1,107 unexploded devices ranging from mortar bodies to rockets.

Preston said he gave the current owners a letter certifying that “the site has been risk managed down to very low.”

A list of all the sites is posted on the DND website but it is not searchable by keyword or postal code and no addresses or details are available.

Preston says the main danger is not from people stumbling upon unexploded weapons but rather “because people find them and mishandle them and assume they are safe and pick them up.”

“Our core message is: once you find something, stop!” he says. “There is a hazard out there but it’s not going to hurt you if you treat it with respect that it deserves and do not touch it.”

With files from Andrew Bailey

Where they are

Here is the list provided by the Department of National Defense of “confirmed” sites in Ontario with unexploded ordnance and those locations that are “in assessment.”

For more information, you can visit the DND UXO and Legacy Sites Program on the web or contact them at 1-800-207-0599

Confirmed:

Brantford - Burtch R1

Ipperwash - CLS Range and training area

Melbourne Bombing Range

Mer Bleue

North Gower - Demolition Exercises

Ostrander Point

Petawawa - Ottawa River

Toronto - Solway Metal Sales

Wellers Bay

Winisk

In Assessment:

Amherstburg - Small Arms Range

Aylmer - Lake Erie PBR

Aylmer - RCAF Station (Main Site)

Barriefield - Rifle Range

Borden - Bombing Range

Borden - CFAD Angus

Brampton - No. 24 Army (Basic) Training Camp

Brantford - Airport

Brantford - Grand River Range

Brantford - Hartley Bombing Range

Brantford - Onondaga Bombing Range

Brantford - Training Area & Range

Brockville- Brockville Country Club

Brockville - Burns-Baker Area

Brockville - Cranberry Lake

Brockville - Fairfield

Brockville - Landon Farm

Brockville - Lyn

Brockville - Mallorytown Landing

Brockville - Metcalfe Farm

Brockville - North Augusta

Brockville - North of North Parade Ground

Brockville - Rifle Range

Brockville - Sherwood Springs

Brockville - St. Mary’s College

Brockville - Tincap

Brockville Yonge Mills

Cambridge - Galt Rifle Range

Cambridge - Rifle Range

Camp Picton - Aerodrome

Camp Picton - No. 2 PBR

Camp Picton - No. 4 PBR

Camp Picton - Turret Training Range

Carp - Airfield

Chatham - Cedar Springs Rifle Range

Cobourg - Ordnance Depot

Cobourg - Rifle Range

Collingwood - Rifle Range

Cornwall - 31 Army (Basic) Training Camp

Demorestville

Dexter

Diver

Dunnville - Grand River Bombing Range

Dunnville - Mohawk Pt Bombing Range

Dutton

Fingal - Bombing Range 1

Fingal - Bombing Range 2

Fingal - Bombing Range 3

Fingal - Lake Erie Targets

Fingal - Land Range for B&GS

Frenchman’s Bay Bombing and Gunnery Range

Georgian Bay

Guelph

Hagersville - No. 16 SFTS

Hamilton - Mount Hope

Haycock Island

Horse Point - Firing and Bombing Range

Jarvis - Blott Point BR

Jarvis - Evans Point BR

Jarvis - Hoover Point BR

Jarvis - Lake Erie (Nantucket BR)

Jarvis - Lake Erie (Port Dover BR)

Jarvis - Lake Erie (Port Maitland BR)

Jarvis - Long Point Bay BR

Jarvis - No. 1 B&GS

Jarvis - Peacock Point BR

Jarvis - Port Ryers BR

Jarvis - Turkey Point BR

Jarvis - Wood’s Property BR

Kingston - Loughborough Lake BR SFTS

Kingston - Millhaven BR STFS

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Kingston Mills - Bombing Range

Kitchener - Breslau Rifle Range

Lake Erie

Lake Huron - Bombing & Gunnery Range

Lindsay - RCOC Storage

Lindsay - Training Area

London - Bombing Range

London - Ordnance Stores

London - Range (SA/MG)

London - RCOC 27 Central Ordnance Depot

London - Training Area

London- Wolseley Barracks

Mamainse Point - Training Area

Mississauga - Long Branch Canadian Small Arms School

Mississauga - Long Branch Range

Mississauga- No. 15 Regional Ordnance Depot

Mountain View - Athol Bay B&GS Target Area

Mountain View - Hillier Bombing Range

Mountain View- Lake Ontario B&GS Target Area

Mountain View - Wellington Bay B&GS Target Area

Newmarket - No. 23 Army Basic Training Camp

Newmarket - RCOC Returned Stores Depot

Newmarket - RCOC Stores Depot

Niagara-on-the-Lake

Niagara-on-the-Lake Sewage Treatment Plant

North Bay - Reserve Training Area

North Bay - Surface-to-Air Missile Site

Nottawasaga Bay - RCAF Firing & Bombing Range

Orillia

Oshawa - Camp X

Oshawa - Rifle Range

Oshawa - Tank Training Area

Ottawa - Anti-submarine Warfare Storage Facility

Ottawa - BCATP Site

Ottawa - Central Ordnance Depot

Ottawa - PBR

Ottawa - Rifle Range

Ottawa - Rifle Range

Ottawa - Small Arms Range

Owen Sound - Rifle Range

Pendleton - BCATP Site

Peterborough - Rifle Range

Point Petre

Point Petrie

Port Albert - PBR

Port Dalhousie - Proof Range

Port Hope - Rifle Range

Prescott - Ordnance Stores

Prince Edward Point - Underwater PBR

Prince Edward Point (Camp Picton PBR No. 3)

Sandhurst

Sault Ste. Marie - Rifle Range

Sioux Lookout - Rifle Range

South Bay

St. Catharines - Mortar Training

Sudbury - Brodill Lake Rifle Rge & Training Area

Sudbury - Minnow Lake Camp

Sudbury - Rocket and Bombing Target Area

Thunder Bay - Bombing Range

Thunder Bay - Kakabeka Falls Dry Training Area

Thunder Bay - No. 2 Chemical Warfare Mortar Co.

Thunder Bay - Rifle Range

Toronto - Bren Gun Proof Range

Toronto - No. 1 Equipment Depot

Toronto - No. Ordnance Depot Detachment

Toronto - No. 2 Ordnance Depot

Toronto - No. 2 Ordnance Depot Detachment

Toronto - Ordnance Depot Detachment

Toronto - Ordnance Depot Detachment

Toronto - Possible Bombing Range

Toronto - RCASC Salvage Depot

Trenton - PBR

Uxbridge - Rifle Range

Winchester

Wingham - Rifle Range

Wingham - Training Area

Correction - August 12, 2013: This article was edited from a previous version that misstated Daryl Kramp's surname.