History of WETT, Part Two
By: George LeBlanc and John Gulland
In our last History article we recorded as much information as we could find to get us to the beginning of WETT, and now we would like to review the years moving forward with our affiliates and past Presidents.
All of these amazing volunteers worked with Boards and committees to lead the program to where it is today.
In the beginning, the regional Affiliates did most of the field work of promoting and delivering the program.
Here is some background:
WETT Affiliates
ARWETO - Association of Registered Wood Energy Technicians of Ontario
Formed in 1988 by volunteer Board of Governors in association with the government of Ontario. The term ‘Registered’ is significant because it was granted by the government to confer a degree of authority and status as an alternative to the government taking on the training and certification functions itself. ARWETO also hosted a trade show and conference known as the WOOD/GAS Forum for several years in the early 1990s. The ‘Forum’ in 1995 had indoor and outdoor booths for the display and demonstration of products also offered a program of education sessions. Technicians from across the country attended.
The Forum became the gathering for all industry members to meet yearly, to plan the events and training requirements for the following year. ARWETO had some advantages over the other affiliates (perhaps unfairly) because it was in the most populous province and was headquartered in the densely populated ‘Golden Horseshoe’ of Ontario. The Association also had support from the Ontario government, which had been a major funder (along with the Federal government) of the WETT training system.
AWETA - Atlantic Wood Energy Technicians Association (Nova Scotia)
Reported by Mike Kempton in 1995 WETT Ink.
“Formed on September 15th, 1988 by the Wood Heat Steering Committee in Nova Scotia that had been in existence for several years. The first official meeting of AWETA was October 19th, 1988. In 1989 they ran their first WETT course and 10 courses later they had 248 members.
A “Train the trainer” course was held in May 1990, and the pilot for the Volunteer Firefighters course was held with a great response.