Pushing success Chamber of commerce reveals early strategy results. PAGE 24 Following dreams Country music legend performs hit songs at Port. PAGE 32 T-men earn win Senior B lacrosse squad splits pair of weekend games. PAGE 5
Librarian awarded PAGE 3
www.nanaimobulletin.com
TUESDAY, MAY 8, 2012
VOL. 24, NO. 4
www.countryclubcentre.com
Forest CEOs gathering to tackle safety
Support sought for shop I
NANAIMO BOARD pushing province on trades training. BY JENN McGARRIGLE
BY TOBY GORMAN
THE NEWS BULLETIN
THE NEWS BULLETIN
Shop classes have been whittled down in recent years, but Nanaimo trustees hope to step in before there’s nothing left. Jamie Brennan, school board chairman, said trades programs are waning for a variety of reasons, including falling enrolment, a focus on academic choices and budgetary reasons. Trustees want the province to look at whether the system has adequate resources and staffing to help spark student interest – and provide extra funding where needed. “There’s a skills shortage in B.C.,” Brennan said. “We’re looking forward to the shipbuilding contracts coming in and the need for qualified, Red Seal-certified tradespeople. We want those good-paying jobs in the shipbuilding industry to go to B.C. students.” While high school courses will not prepare students to immediately go to work in a trade, the classes enable students to become aware of their aptitude and interest in those areas, Brennan said. A motion from Nanaimo school board asking that the B.C. School Trustees Association support creating a provincial committee to develop a minimum equipment inventory to assist school districts in developing realistic budgets was approved at the provincial group’s annual general
Two fatal fires at B.C. sawmills this year have resulted in the unprecedented step of wood products manufacturing executives teaming up to improve worker safety by creating their own task force. Chief executive officers of 12 B.C. companies came together Wednesday to share information and develop an industrywide response to mill safety following explosions at Babine Forest Products in Burns Lake in January and Lakeland Mills in Prince George in April. Two people were killed in each explosion. WorkSafeB.C. is investigating both incidents and has yet to come to a conclusion, which could take several months, though some believe combustion from sawdust may have been responsible. Companies including Ainsworth, Interfor, Coast Forest, Dunkley Lumber, Western Forest Products, Tolko, Sinclair Group, Hampton Affiliates, FP Innovations, Conifex, West Fraser Timber and Canfor aren’t waiting. The companies have established a CEO task force that will evaluate combustion risks related to dust from processing green and dry wood and attempt to identify improved practices for dust mitigation. See ‘TASK FORCE’ /3
CHRIS BUSH/THE NEWS BULLETIN
Ken Holland, shop instructor, left, and student Liam Atkinson built a storage shed floor from pressure-treated lumber in Dover Bay Secondary School’s woodworking shop Friday.
“
It’s got to be fun, but challenging.
meeting recently. Brennan said trustees developed the motion after discussing a report from the B.C. Technology Education Association. The report states that as a result of funding cuts and the
250-751-2919
www.nanaimoshealthshop.com
including not being able to replace teachers – when he moved into the woodworking shop at Dover several years ago, the technology course disappeared without a qualified teacher to run it – and waning student interest. Shop classes are not mandatory, said Holland, and if students don’t see value in learning the skills, they won’t take the course. “You have to make it attractive,” he said. “It’s got to be fun, but challenging. If kids don’t like it, you don’t get the enrolment and you don’t get the budget.” ◆ See ‘DISTRICT’S’ /4
Decaffeinated Green Coffee Bean Extract • Lose Weight and Trim Belly Fat • Lower Blood Pressure • Simply 2 capsules a day!
AS SEEN ON DR. OZ
$ 00
Not to be combined with any other offers. While quantities last. Expires May 25, 2012.
2
OFF
WITH COUPON
✃
COUNTRY CLUB CENTRE
SIMPLY TRIM bby ✃
YOURS IN GOOD HEALTH
province’s decision to remove maximum class size numbers in recent years, there are fewer technology education teachers and those remaining are teaching larger classes with less supplies, equipment and maintenance. Ken Holland, a shop teacher at Dover Bay Secondary School since 1992, said in the late ’70s, there were about a dozen shop teachers at Nanaimo District Secondary School alone. Now there are about that many in the entire district – but it’s hard to nail down why. He suspects the drop results from a combination of things,