TVOkids’ Trading Skills spotlights Fleming College’s one-of-a-kind blasting program

Fleming College’s Frost Campus will be making an appearance on TVOkids docuseries Trading Skills.

The show follows kid hosts Akeylah James and Brody Agmon, learning about different trades. In an upcoming episode Agmon learns about surface blasting from Bill Smith, blasting techniques program coordinator at Fleming.

Smith said the presentation he gave to Agmon, of drilling, packing and detonating a blast that blows up a cement block, is one he’s given hundreds of times. “We do that a lot without the filming piece. We have all kinds of groups that will come to the campus, mostly high school students, but we also have had public schools. They’ll come to visit the campus, “to see what their options are,” he said.

Smith is originally from Kingston, and took on a drill blasting job after high school. From there he attended Fleming College for forestry, but ultimately went back to blasting. While he still works in the industry, his main job for the last 15 years has been teaching a new generation about the job, one that many don’t realize is a career option.

“It’s an industry that is somewhat small compared to the other standard ones that we think of (in the trades). But because it’s small, if you’re good at what you do in this industry, you’ll never be out of work because there’s hardly anybody else that knows how to do it,” Smith said.

Smith was glad to be able to highlight the Lindsay campus in the show. Fleming College is the only college in Canada that offers a two-semester blasting course. Usually when giving presentations on the program, Smith and other faculty members have to travel to places like Toronto.

“We don’t often get a lot of coverage, being in the smaller town of Lindsay. I tell it to everybody, if you want to really get a true experience come to the campus, even just for a visit, and just look around.”

Smith enjoys watching people’s reactions when a blast goes off. “When someone touches the button or even just gets to watch a blast, I don’t look at the blast, I look at their face. And you’ll see their eyes light up.”

While it’s fun to see that, Smith also notes the job isn’t always fun. Surface blasters have to assess the area, control the blast area, design and implement the blast, and assess results. Smith says there is many hours of work that goes into making an explosion happen.

“It’s exciting most days, but it’s never a cut and dried job. You’re always having to think outside the box. You’ve always got to say, ‘okay, this is the plan’. But now it’s raining today and not sunny, so here’s how we’ve got to change the plan to adapt.”

Smith’s episode of Trading Skills is available to watch now