Trevor Holder is the minister of post-secondary education, training and labour in New Brunswick. (Submitted)
Post-secondary students graduating in 2019 will still be eligible for the Timely Completion Benefit, according to the province.
This comes after the province announced it would be cutting the benefit, as well as the Free Tuition program.
The “very costly” benefit was not reaching enough New Brunswickers, according to Post-Secondary Education Minister Trevor Holder. It helped just 281 people at a cost of $3.3 million in 2017-18
The government heard from students graduating this year that ending the Timely Completion benefit immediately would greatly impact them.
“Our government heard from students graduating this year that immediately discontinuing the Timely Completion Benefit would impact them,” said Holder in a release. “Since students graduating in 2019 had been planning on this debt relief, we will honour it.”
“We will continue to look at ways to not only improve access to post-secondary education, but also look at ways to retain New Brunswick graduates in our province. The department is continuously reviewing our programs to determine how we can improve services for New Brunswickers,” he said.
Green leader David Coon says New Brunswick students graduate with higher debt loads that any students on other provinces and these benefits help them in the long run. In a letter sent to the PC’s, he asked them to grandfather current students in. He also hopes the government will reinstate the program.
