Members of the Lheidli T’enneh Nation will be able to earn an undergraduate degree at the University of Northern British Columbia at no cost, under an agreement signed Wednesday.
Called the Northern Promise Parnership, it's believed to be the first of its kind in Canada and is being described as a meaningful response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's call to make education more accessible for Indigenous people.
It will see UNBC waive tuition while the LTN will cover the remaining costs, including housing, food, and transportation, fees other than tuition, textbooks, and tutoring.
LTN Chief Clayton Pountney said the goal is to remove the barriers that have prevented band members from working toward a degree and increase the proportion of those who have one.
"Our membership is below the average and so we actually want to shoot for the stars and get above the average," he said.
Pountney said band members can get support from the federal government to defray the costs but the process of securing them can be cumbersome, includes early deadlines, and does not cover the whole bill.
"With some of our companies, we do have education funds and some of our own-source revenue we put in," he said.
Two LTN members currently enrolled at UNBC and a further 68 coming up through the School District 57 system, Pountney said.
UNBC president Daniel Weeks said the university will absorb the cost of taking on the students who enroll through the partnership. Along with tuition, he said that includes counseling, career services and other on-campus supports for students.
"My hope is that this program is so widely successful that maybe we do feel pressure in those areas and resources because we have so many students that want to join us...that would be a great problem to have," Weeks said.
Tuition itself can range from $5,000 to $7,000 a year at UNBC. Waiving tuition will allow LTN to use the funds it does get from the federal government in a "much more effective way," Weeks said.
