The Future is Bright: Skills Canada Ontario 2023 autobody and car painting winners announced

An auto collision competitor, working his craft at the Toronto Congress Centre. Photo by Bill Speed, Skills Canada Ontario

Toronto, Ontario — The winners for Skills Canada Ontario 2023 have been released, with technical committee chair Bill Speed of Action Appraisals saying that this year’s competition featured some of the best setups and most skilled competitors in years.

“We could not have pulled off this competition without the help and support of the volunteers, judges and educators who helped to train, setup, judge and teardown the site. We were all so happy to get back to a live event after three years of COVID,” said Speed in an email to Collision Repair.

In the secondary auto collision category, Daniel G. of Toronto District School Board (DSB) earned the gold medal, while George L. of Toronto DSB took the silver and Luke V. of Limestone DSB took the bronze medal.

“There were 16 marks between Gold and silver—very skilled secondary students,” said Speed.

In the post-secondary auto collision category, Joseph B. of Fanshawe College took the gold. Ethan A. of Centennial College took the silver while Jordan D., also from Fanshawe College, took the bronze.

In this bracket, Speed described the fight for gold as “a great job by two fierce competitors—there were nine marks separating gold and silver. Congratulations to Joseph B. going forward to Winnipeg!”

In the Secondary car painting category, Sophia H-V. from Toronto DSB took the gold medal in the competition. Joe Y. of Limestone DSB took a silver, and Alisa I. of Simcoe County DSB took home the bronze medal.

In the post-secondary car painting category, Mikayla R. of Fanshawe College earned the gold medal. Tyler D. of Fanshawe College earned a silver medal, while Dylon G. of Centennial College returned with a bronze medal.

“This was my twenty-eighth year as chair of this competition, and I believe this was one of the best setups and highest skill levels I have seen in many years,” said Speed.

He goes on to explain that Excellence Auto Collision has six former skills competitors at their facilities, along with operations manager Mark Millson, who placed seventh at World Skills back in 2005.

“The ownership obviously feels the need to recruit young people into the industry and Skills competitors have helped to fill that need, and brings in co-op students to peak students’ interest in the trade. More shops need to take advantage of co-op programs to recruit new talent–show students the good side of the trade,” according to Speed.

Skills Ontario Competition 2023

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