INSIDE: Chiefs skunked as Island trip turns into a real stinker Pg. 21 T U E S D A Y
October 25, 2011
Ruler will be putting on the miles 7 Exalted N E W S ,
SPORTS,
WEATHER
Van Geel changes life, gets second chance
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E N T E R T A I N M E N T chilliwacktimes.com
Spark of Life Shipbuilding contract means bright future for UFV trades programs
BY TYLER OLSEN tolsen@chilliwacktimes.com
BY TYLER OLSEN tolsen@chilliwacktimes.com
T
W
ith his voice tight with emotion and his parents looking on, 27-year-old Bradley Van Geel stood before a judge Thursday and apologized for a February crime spree that ended with him urging police to shoot him. “I know it doesn’t fix it, but I feel truly sorry for my actions,” said Van Geel. “I’m done with my old lifestyle, and old friends . . . It’s something I’ll have to live with for the rest of my life and will never be able to forget.” Earlier, the court heard that police were first called to investigate a “spousal altercation” at Van Geel’s Popkum area home. Van Geel wasn’t present when police arrived and found marijuana plants and firearms. Police later reported that a small, three-foot alligator was also found. The next day, Van Geel embarked on what Judge Russell MacKay described as a “crime spree.” Van Geel first entered a Young Road gas station, threw the attendant to the ground and made off with $80. He then proceeded to a nearby used car lot, from which he stole a vehicle. From there, he continued on to the parking lot of Safeway, where he tried to steal a truck. When confronted by the vehicle’s owner, he brandished a pair of scissors, hit her, and fled in the car he had stolen from the auto dealer. See VAN GEEL, Page 4
Tyler Olsen/TIMES
Levi Tebrink, a UFV welding student, practises his trade, one which has a brighter future thanks to the recent $8 billion shipbuilding contract announced last week.
he economic impact of a huge $8 billion contract awarded to Vancouver shipbuilders last week could trickle all the way up the Fraser Valley to Chilliwack, according to the University of the Fraser Valley’s dean of trades and technology. Harv McCullough, who oversees UFV’s trades programs, says the effects of the contract will reverberate through the entire Lower Mainland, and beyond. “There’s going to be a huge rippling effect for all kinds of businesses,” said McCullough. The contract will directly create some 4,000 jobs over eight years in British Columbia, including 3,200 in North Vancouver. Many of those will be for ship fabricators and welders. Each year, 80 students go through a 34-week welding courses at UFV’s Keith Wilson Road trades and technology campus. With a skilled labour shortage already forecast, McCullough said the contracts will only add to the demand for the university’s graduates—who learn both traditional welding skills and how to work with cutting edge technology including robotic welders. But with the university already turning away applicants for many of its trades programs, including its welding course, the question becomes whether government will contribute more funding to allow trade schools like UFV to offer more programs. “I’m not sure if this will have an impact in possibly freeing up some additional training spaces for a university like us, which is running at over capacity and probably going to have to address additional needs because of this large contract,” said McCullough. “This is not just a flash-in-the-pan contract. This is going to be over a number of years, 20 or so years. It could be almost half a person’s working career.” British Columbia, like most governments in Canada See UFV, Page 10
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