A look back at the Sheet Metal Industry Training Board as legacy member Aaron Smith steps down after 24 years of service.
By Jessica Kirby
Aaron Smith started as a member of the Sheet Metal Industry Training Board (SMITB) in 2000. The Board is comprised of four contractors and four union members and governs the Sheet Metal Workers Training Centre (SMWTC) where the Local 280 workforce receives training.
Looking back
The SMWTC opened in 1992 under the SMITB, relying on government funding and employer contributions to offer training free to union recruits. The SMWTC was the first private trades training center in BC. “We did it first,” says Jud Martell, SMWTC training co-ordinator. “We set the standard.”
In 2001, the government revamped the apprenticeship system and decertified trades, enacting the Skilled Trades Act and cutting funding to unions and training centres.
“The initial conversation was that we were done,” Martell says. “But the board at that time answered that problem by becoming a registered society and starting to charge for tuition.”
Smith, who now owns Smith Sheet Metal Works Ltd., was part of the board that developed a plan to keep the Training Centre’s doors open.
Within that plan the SMITB needed to start charging students tuition. “BCIT had already been charging tuition for its sheet metal training program,” Smith says. “Doing the same was a tough decision for our board, but once we instigated the plan, we decided that we would charge less than BCIT while still delivering a far superior product. From the beginning and still to this day, our program has had higher completion rates, higher pass/fail ratios, and higher grades than BCIT.
“But I need to point out that these successes were only accomplished with the amazing dedication and hard work from our instructors and administration staff. Without all of them none of this would have been achievable.”
Evolution of training
Fast-forward to 2008, and some on the boardbegan advocating for a training center facility that would be owned by the SMITB. “Back then, the costs of renting were climbing, and we were steadily growing to the point where the location was too small,” Smith says. “We were having continuous issues at the Dawson Street location as Brentwood was getting busier and more congested.”
He created a proposal for the board of directors, the union, and SMACNA to get out of the rental building and buy their own facility. This would allow the board to have greater control over the school’s costs and future. He proposed that his retired father, Merle Smith, GC the new building’s renovation, which would also save the school a great deal of cost and set it on the path to self-sufficiency.
But even though he created a business plan that laid out a financial spreadsheet backed by solid numbers, he struggled to get the investment support from his peers.
“There were some old dogs in the industry who were resistant to change,” Smith says. “They felt the school shouldn’t own property because it was too much of a risk. I was flabbergasted. Controlling your future and your costs is always smart, and real estate—if it is done right—is never a risk.”
He persevered, and by mid-2010 the Training Centre moved from a rented building on Dawson Street in Burnaby to a building it owns in Port Kells, Langley. By 2012, the school was into the second part of that mortgage, and on what Martell calls “a shoestring budget,” the mortgage was paid off in ten years.
Because of the SMITB’s financial stewardship, the union and SMACNA were able to purchase and outfit a second training centre location, which opened in 2022. “This acquisition could not come soon enough as the growth of our industry and need for newly trained workers was exploding,” Martell says. “The second facility is now fully operational and continuing with the same training policies as the first facility. It is definitely meeting the demands of our industry.”
Martell says it was Smith’s values—integrity, education, and hard work—that made his involvement with that project and on the board in general so valuable.
“Aaron built his own company on his strong principles, and he is one of the last people on earth with whom you can shake hands and not need a contract,” Martell says. “He has the willpower to stay the course when he knows he is on the right path, and if anyone says he is wrong, he says, ‘Let me prove it’ and then he proves it.”
In the beginning
When he was just starting his career, Smith worked for Rick Beatty at Fairview Sheet Metal. Beatty was one of the original group of union sheet metal workers who took sheet metal training out of BCIT and established the SMWTC because they didn’t like union and non-union workers training side by side. He encouraged Smith, one of the Training Centre’s first graduates, to teach at the school.
“I started teaching for a couple of years and found that I didn’t really enjoy it because it took me away from sheet metal work,” Smith says. “As things progressed, I started a company with my dad in 1998 and left the school.”
Smith has always been an avid promoter of education, so when he was on the SMACNA-BC board, a position on the SMITB came available and other SMACNA-BC members encouraged him to take it.
“It was an easy fit back then even though I was young,” Smith says. “I am a massive proponent of education and teaching, and a lot of people don’t understand that, even though we call ourselves sheet metal workers, we are actually all teachers and problem solvers. I learned early on that if we aren’t learning and teaching all the time, we have problems.”
The future
In May 2024, Smith left the SMITB after 24 years of service. It was not an easy decision. But his son recently began his apprenticeship and is working for Smith Sheet Metal Works, which prompted Aaron to refocus his attention on succession planning.
With his eye on growing the business and adding key personnel to the roster, Smith’s business has flourished, and this growth has taken more of his time. “Now my company is on a different level, and I am even more proud of it and our team,” he says. “But I didn’t really want to leave the Training Board.
Meeting challenges
The SMWTC has continued to thrive. It currently trains about 350 apprentices a year, a number that has steadily increased year over year. In 1992, when the first training centre opened, 96 apprentices were in training. In 2023, a record total of 345 apprentices were trained, and today the Training Centre is managing close to 950 apprentices. But it is not without its challenges. The labour shortage in BC poses a catch-22 problem for contractors where they desperately want and need skilled labour but can’t necessarily afford the time to lose apprentices for schooling.
“Employers realize the value of apprentices and training but due to labour shortages don’t usually want to give them up for school,” Smith says. “That is where Jud’s job can be very difficult. Even though the school is a not-for-profit entity it still needs to fill the seats to keep it operating smoothly. If the school has a class of 16 scheduled and only 12 show up, the school loses funding for each of those empty seats.”
The government recently re-established compulsory trades, but it hasn’t increased funding for training centres for over 20 years, despite nation-wide struggles with inflation and the cost of living. Until now.
“After a decade of strong arguments and industry support the BC government has finally promised to increase the funding for apprenticeships,” Martell says. “We look forward to the budget announcement in March of 2025 when the promise of doubling the funding from Skilled Trades BC to the technical trainers of BC is put into action.”
Driven by values
Being on the board requires tenacity, commitment, and a willingness to speak up and speak often, Smith says.
“When I first got onto the Board, I was a very quiet person and there were some intimidating people on there—but I eventually found my voice,” he says. “I just hope that the new and existing board members speak up and say the things that they need to say. Hopefully they keep carrying the torch the same way that I did, working towards the same goal of producing highly trained sheet metal workers with the same morals and the same ideology.”
One of the key factors in the SMITB’s success is that it comprises equal contractor and union representation, thus leveraging industry training standards from a foundational partnership. “That partnership is essential,” Smith says. “It allows us to be innovative because contractors can bring forward the new technologies and changing practices that are required on job sites and then the Training Centre can adjust accordingly.”
He adds that the Training Centre is the ideal place to begin demonstrating the importance of industry partnerships. “If you aren’t preaching it from the beginning, you’ve probably already lost,” he says.
Martell says Smith’s presence on the SMITB will be missed, both professionally and personally. “Aaron was going to leave in 2020, but he realized that the next four years were going to be tough, so he stayed for an extra term,” he says. “That’s the kind of person he is. He’s the general you want next to you in the trench.”
“I loved all of those guys on the board,” Smith says. “It is, in my opinion, the best board around because of the people and what they are doing for the overall good of our industry.” ■
