One of the former instructors of the short-lived oil-burner technician program at Yukon College is calling for its reinstatement as soon as possible.

Peter Harach taught 14 students in the government-funded pilot program for the two years it ran in 2009 and 2010.

When the pilot money ran out, the program ended.

Harach told the Star this week the school is missing out on an opportunity to become a training leader in western Canada, especially if regulations are changed to require oil-burner mechanics to be certified.

Currently there is no guarantee that the person servicing an oil heating system in the Yukon has any formal certification or training.

Calls to change have grown louder since carbon monoxide killed five people in a Porter Creek home in late January.

The Yukon's fire marshal has said ice in the top two feet of the home's chimney trapped the noxious gas in the house.

"Low-temperature flue gases coming from the high-efficiency burner in the boiler combined with the extremely cold temperatures at the time contributed to the build-up of ice. The combined factors were determined to be the cause of this tragic incident,” the findings conclude.

The marshal has submitted his findings to the coroner's office, which is working on a final report.

So far, no official has said who installed the home's heating system or whether it was done correctly.

The Yukon College course was the only one of its kind in the territory, but the Yukon is not the only jurisdiction without training opportunities.

There is no program offered anywhere in British Columbia, a jurisdiction where certification is also not required, Harach said. This leaves a vacuum that Yukon College could fill.

The former teacher, a certified technician in both the Yukon and British Columbia, estimates there are 10 times as many technicians working in B.C. as there are in the Yukon.

"We'd not only be training the three or four hundred trainees that we need in the Yukon, but we need to train three or four thousand in B.C.,” he said.

"It makes sense to develop not only the regulations in the Yukon but also a training centre, because we could become the western Canadian authority.”

During the college program, students spent the first half of their time learning the basics.

"The idea was you get to learn this stuff, you get familiar with it, you learn how to use the diagnostic tools,” Harach said.

"Then you go out and you work for a year or two and get a couple thousand hours under your belt, then you come back and do part B.”

Part B included learning how to install the units and assess buildings for safety.

In Harach's class, about half the part A students were able to go directly to part B because of experience already gained before coming to the college.

The remainder finished their certification at schools in eastern Canada.

The classroom included three chimneys built into the walls for students to practise on as well as multiple "training furnaces”.

Learning which type of furnace can be used with different-sized chimneys was an important part of the class, Harach said.

"There is a need for students to have all sorts of different types of chimneys so that when students learn, they can see that there is big difference when you hook something to a brick chimney or a metal-lined chimney,” he said.

All that equipment is still there, said Deb Bartlette, the college's acting vice-president academic.

Bartlette said the college is currently looking in to possibly offering a similar program in the future.

Harach said many insurance companies are now requiring heating systems to be inspected by a credentialed oil burner mechanic before underwriting a policy.

In 2010, Harach spent time training building inspectors with the city and the territories on what to look for when they see a furnace.

Later that year, he spent time with Rod Corea of Ontario's NRG Resources, who was doing inspections of the territory's oil-burning appliances.

This would be the fifth report Corea has completed since 2007.

He found that of the 305 appliances inspected during the three-year period, only four were up to code.

That's a 99 per cent failure rate.

Following the deaths in Porter Creek, the opposition accused the government of sitting on the report.

Though he has not seen the Porter Creek house himself, Harach said he believes the final report will find that the furnace was not properly installed, likely by someone without any certification.

"If your serviceman dials your burner for efficiency to not burn as much oil, you've taken away what heat is required to keep that chimney frost-free,” he said.

"If he is trained in the field, he would know, brick chimney? Lots of heat.

"Sorry you have to waste heat to keep the chimney clear. If he's not trained, he's going, ‘Oh, yeah, I can hook this up – see you later.'”