July 15, 2010
LO apprentice emcees Breakfast with the Mayors
Tyler Garrad, left, and Joseph Isaak with their teacher Jan Lehman.
By Helen Hassard

Golden Horseshoe Chapter members and LO staff shared a time of pride during the Halton Industry Education Council’s Halton Apprenticeship Advisory Council (HAAC) Honour Roll Awards. It was part of the semi-annual Breakfast with the Mayors event, held in late May.

LO has been a long-time supporter of HAAC, a community effort to foster growth of the skilled trades. The event, held in Burlington, was well received with almost 300 guests in attendance, including Mayor Rob Burton from the Town of Oakville, Mayor Cam Jackson from the City of Burlington and Mayor Gordon Krantz from the Town of Milton. All three mayors, along with Regional Chair Gary Carr, took the opportunity to bring greetings, while discussing the importance of skilled trades and community collaboration in Halton.

This year the breakfast was particularly special for Landscape Ontario, because Tyler Garrard, gold medalist in Landscape Gardening at the recent Ontario Skills competition and apprentice at the Canadian Nursery Landscape Association (CNLA) in partnership with LO, emceed the event.

Tyler and his partner Joseph Isaak were thrilled with the win, which was extremely impressive considering their school doesn’t offer a landscaping program. Through much determination and a little help from their co-op teacher, Jan Lehman, the boys wowed the Ontario Skills judges with their concentration and skill.

In addition, Gail Smyth, executive director of Skills Canada — Ontario, spoke of the exciting events, while representatives from the Halton Catholic and Halton District School Boards acknowledged all of the student winners in attendance.

Sally Harvey, manager of education and labour development at LO and Tyler’s trainer during his apprenticeship, stated, “LO is proud to have one of the members of the gold member team on board in partnership with CNLA.” Harvey went on to say, “Tyler is a great role model for our youth today. As a student of horticulture, he is pursuing multiple educational pathways to reach his goal; starting with an apprenticeship with CNLA and LO and pursuing college this fall.”