By Mike Davey. Photos by Bill Speed.
Waterloo, Ontario — May 9, 2014 — The 25th Annual Ontario Technological Skills Competition is the largest provincial skilled trades competition in Canada, with over 1,900 secondary and post-secondary students going head-to-head in more than 60 competitions. The competition took place May 5 and 6 at RIM Park in Waterloo, Ont.
Two competitions always stand out for collision repair stakeholders: Auto Collision and Car Painting.
Steven Le-Margueresse of Centennial College took the gold in the Post-Secondary category of the Auto Collision competition, with strong showings from Adrian Tantalo of Centennial College (silver) and Kris Dos Santos of Mohawk College (bronze). Geoff Brown of Robert Bateman High School won gold in the Secondary category of Auto Collision.
| Catherine Mathewson of Danforth Collegiate won gold in the Secondary category for Auto Painting. |
Daniel Kidd of Centennial College took the gold in Auto Painting in the Post-Secondary category. Zack Henshall of Mohawk College took silver, with Michael Dilts of Mohawk College taking home the bronze.
Catherine Mathewson of Danforth Collegiate won gold in the Secondary category for Auto Painting, with Robert Bauer of Halton District School Board taking the silver, and Jonathan Clovis Mohammed of Halton Catholic District School Board taking home the bronze.
Judging a technical skills competition requires a high degree of familiarity with the normal processes used. The Auto Collision and Car Painting competitions therefore depend heavily on volunteers from the collision repair industry. This year’s judges were Mark Hodgins of State Farm Insurance, John Hido of Discovery Ford, Jim Speed of Carstar Automotive Canada, Stu Klein of Fix Auto Ontario, Terry Syms of State Farm Insurance, Paul Birchall of 3M Canada, Jerry Snyder of Spanesi and CEG, Hartley Ellis of the Ontario College of Trades and Ontario Technological Skills Competition Co-Chair, Jordie Preston of 3M Canada, and William Speed of Danforth Collegiate and Technical Institute.
Speed is also the Ontario Technological Skills Competition Chair for the Auto Collision Competition, and a member of the National Technical Committee and current chair for the Canadian Skills Competition. He has been involved with the competition throughout much of its history.
“It’s interesting to see former competitors often come back to help out,†says Speed. “Dan Chuddy, who runs the Car Painting competition, was a competitor in 2006. Hartley Ellis, my co-chair, was a competitor in 2002, ’03 and ’04.â€
For more information, please visit skillsontario.com. Please see more photos in the gallery below.
