N.B. offers tuition rebate

New Release ---- >FREDERICTON - New Brunswick will offer a tuition rebate to university and college graduates who continue to work in the province when they graduate, Premier Bernard Lord announced Friday.

Under the plan, any student enrolled in post-secondary studies as of Jan. 1, 2005, can apply to have 50 per cent of their tuition costs rebated against their provincial income taxes.

Graduates can claim a lifetime maximum of $10,000 and have up to 20 years to claim the full amount.

Lord, who said it's the first program of its kind in the country, believes it will keep more university-educated workers in the province. The premier estimated about 28,000 people will benefit from the program in its first year.

The province estimates the program will provide total cash rebates of about $63 million a year to eligible students.

"This is a major investment in the future of New Brunswick," Lord told the legislature on Friday.
"Furthermore, it will be a non-taxable benefit, so nothing is taken away at the other end."

The average university tuition fee in New Brunswick is $4,457 per year, according to the Canadian Federation of Students. That's almost double what students in the province paid 10 years ago.

New Brunswick student leaders and opposition politicians offered their support for the tuition rebate.

"Here's a tremendous inducement to stay here and contribute to the economy on the whole," noted Kerri Gaskin, a spokesperson for students at New Brunswick's English-language community colleges.

Opposition Liberal leader Shawn Graham said he supports the program – although he said Lord's Conservatives can hardly take credit for the idea.

"The centrepiece he announced today was an initiative we committed to in April 2003, but we welcome the fact that today, students in New Brunswick are going to be benefitting from a Liberal initiative," Graham said.