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ri- st tribune tuesday february 10 1998 p 3 f a ft chamber of commerce winterfest in photo far left jane morgan and granddaughter aura lowe 3 perform their own special ballet on the icerink in photo top right heather lee and son eric 5 race downhill while casey odellewens 14 takes her labhusky puppy kyeli onto the snowcovered beach in photo left in top photo jassen benedict15 left and troy maillet14 serve scrumptious bbqdogs at the optimist club stand photos by sjoerd witteveen apprenticeship program needs fresh new blood mike adler staff reporter reforms for ontarios appren ticeship system come as too many skilled workers are retiring and not enough young people are ready to take their place but charging tuition to enter apprenticeship programs is ludi crous says robert brady a local teacher who once worked in a trade himself youre dumping costs on those who can least afford it warned brady technical department head at markhams brother andre catholic high school standing in a machine shop last month education minister dave johnson announced changes he said will make it easier for people to enter trades and for industries to get more skilled workers besides charging apprentices a fee for classroom training john son said hell drop the minimum age requirement now 1 6 years for apprentices and let related industries help shape the training process but although the visiting john son pointed out toolanddie spe cialists can make 100000 a year brady said apprentices start with low wages and their employ ers demand hard work if they dont show the smarts to do their job they dont- have it any more he said recently the shortage of apprentices is a growing problem a lot of small machine shops are crying to bring- new people on board brady said and a construction union con sultant said his local the largest in north america started a high school outreach program in sep tember to attract young people to trades the average age of our mem bership is about 55 years old lito romano based at the labourers international union of north americain training centre in north york the local is losing 40 or 50 members a month at a time when more work is available he added the construction industry has never been considered a glamour industry said romano were trying to change that disappearing or neglected tech nical programs in schools may partly account for the lack of interest in trades some suggest at brother andre brady is set ting up one of only two pre- appreriticeship programs in the regions separate schools the public system has only one at thornlea secondary in thorn- hill as part of its plan to change high school education johnsons ministry said schools wjll work with a partnership council to give students chances to explore and pursue apprenticeships the district public board wants to expose more students to skilled trades and make more opportunities available avis glaze its associate director said last week we do not have many students involved in apprenticeship pro grams who could be involved she said deputy chief wilson retires after 30 years york regional polices second-in- command deputy chief robert wilson has retired after more than 30 years on the force wilson began his career in newmarket as a foot patrol constable and continued as a general duties offi cer when the regionwide force was formed in 1973 he was promoted to detective and worked in the criminal investigation branches of both auroras 1 district and richmond hills 2 dis trict- in 1975 he took of the newly- formed drug unit as detectivesergeant and after four years he took over as offi cer in charge of the intelligence unit and special services wilson attained the rank of inspector in 1982 and worked out of the aurora detachment as head of the emergency response unit intelligence and morality four years later he became acting staff inspector and officer in charge of support ser vices and a little more than a month later he was confirmed in that rank in 1987 he was promoted again to super intendent and worked as the head of operations before he was promoted to deputy chief in 1992 cube van destroyed in blaze fire completely destroyed a cube van which was equipped with a mobile tool set at kennedy lane and stouffville road on friday afternoon a fire offi cial reported the driver and the lone occupant of of the 1989 vehicle managed to get out without injury reports whitchurch- stouffville fire chief murray emmer- son damage is estimated at more than 20000 the van is used to go to work by the selfemployed contractor at construc tion sites no charges were laid in connection with the fire king heads go transit from page 1 threeyear experiment in 1967 with a single line along lake ontario shore line it has succeeded and expanded beyond all original expectations today go is made up of 49 stations 45 trains and 329 biievel railcars in 1997 go transit carried 335 million passengers less than 30 per cent of gos operating costs are now paid by public funding awe