MPI donates auto repair gear to RRC Polytech

Manitoba Public Insurance’s donation Thursday came without an oversized cheque or physical money.

Instead, the Crown corporation announced $1.2-million worth of collision repair equipment for Red River College Polytechnic.

“We knew that the equipment wasn’t being used to its full value,” Carmen Nedohin, MPI’s board chair, said outside the Winnipeg post-secondary’s auto repair shop at its Notre Dame Avenue campus.

Inside, students assembled golf carts. More than 200 pieces of equipment — frame racks, dent pulling systems — have been added to the facility. “It was just a perfect fit,” Nedohin added.

Around a decade ago, MPI sought to create a research and training space where students could repair vehicles. The changing industry made the site “redundant,” Nedohin said. Auto shops and suppliers have their own training styles.

MPI’s equipment was used, but it will get greater attention at RRC Polytech, Nedohin said.

Auto body and collision technician apprentices are regularly in the shop, alongside students in other transportation training programs. Some 400 students could use the space annually.

Cassandra Foy is one. She’s in her final year of schooling as an automotive refinishing apprentice. The equipment upgrades are “really beneficial,” she said.

Some of the college’s equipment is older: for example, Foy might learn on a tool that’s attached to an air hose, but her workplace uses a battery electric version, she said.

Even so, she attributes the training to her success — she won gold at a Skills Canada car painting competition earlier this year.

RRC Polytech buys new equipment annually. MPI’s donation may replace some pieces, but it will generally be integrated into the current set, said Mark Blackner, associate dean of transportation and manufacturing.

“Industry is at all different levels,” Blackner said. “We have to still be able to teach some of the older technology, but also implement some of the newer technology.”

The industry has become more complex, he noted. Workers replacing windshields today may also need to consider radar, cameras and soundproof glass. Digital technology is integrated into RRC’s curriculum, Blackner said.

MPI’s equipment is in-line with industry standards, he and Nedohin said.

The donation comes as Manitoba grapples with an autobody trades worker shortage. The province could use around 300 technicians and another 100 people for administrative roles, said Denis Cloutier, executive director of Automotive Trades Association Manitoba.

“All of the skilled trades are suffering,” he said. “We need to change the stigma of skilled trades.”

MPI’s donation follows Nedohin’s conversations with industry and RRC about closing the labour gap.

A concerted “group effort” — between government, post-secondary and industry — is needed to attract more people to the trades, Cloutier said.

RRC equipment being removed from classes may be auctioned off, Blackner said.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com