Long-time NorQuest supporter honored

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A local Metis entrepreneur was honored by NorQuest College on Nov. 9. The college changed the name of its auditorium to the Dr. Herb Belcourt Auditorium.

"When the college first called me, I was ecstatic," Belcourt said. "It was beyond my wildest dreams that I would have an auditorium named after me."

Belcourt is one of the college's biggest supporters. He has personally donated more than $100,000 to the institution to help fund programs and provide student endowments.

"His donations and investments in education have really been an opportunity to many of our Metis students to get financial help through their education," said Wayne Shillington, president of NorQuest College. "He's an inspiration to many of our students in terms of what you can accomplish."

At the age of 15, Belcourt landed his first job at a logging camp in Alberta. He then went on to start his own multi-million dollar business. He only had a Grade 7 education, but obtained his high school diploma from the Alberta College in the 1970s. Belcourt, along with Orval Belcourt and Georges Brosseau, founded the CaNative Housing Corporation in 1971, which is a non-profit corporation that provides affordable housing for Natives in Edmonton and Calgary. In December 2000, CaNative provided a $500,000 endowment fund to encourage more Aboriginal students to enroll at the University of Alberta.

"He cares passionately about helping the Aboriginal, especially the Metis, community, but wants to give them an opportunity to achieve things for themselves," Shillington said.

Belcourt took a year of political science at the university and was awarded an honorary doctorate of law in 2001 at the age of 70.

Belcourt has been the recipient of several awards, including, the 1977 Queen's Silver Jubilee Medal for community service, the Premier's Leadership Award from the Province of Alberta in 1999, the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal in 2003. It was recently announced that he would be the recipient of the National Aboriginal Achievement Award in the housing category. It will be presented to Belcourt at a gala held in Vancouver on Jan. 27, 2006.

Belcourt said that in order to put a stop to poverty, Aboriginal people need to be encouraged through education to be successful.

"I think we've had so much poverty amongst the Native people," Belcourt said. "I think it's about time we start encouraging education and encouraging industry to hire Native people. I know that (Premier Ralph) Klein says that we will always have poverty. Maybe so, but if we don't do anything we will absolutely continue to always have poverty."

Now retired from his 45-year career as a businessman, Belcourt said that above all else, "students should learn from me to stay positive and never give up."

"You must be positive in no matter what you do in life," Belcourt stated. "If you are negative, then you will fail. Whatever I have decided to do, I have accomplished and I have always taken a positive attitude in whatever I do. One thing you should always do is ask for help because if you don't know something, someone out there will know the answer."

Belcourt said he spends most of his time with his two grandchildren, whom he and his wife are raising in their Sherwood Park home.

Belcourt has provides support to the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, Grant MacEwan College and Athabasca University. In addition, Belcourt has committed his time to many associations, committees and boards, including Native Counselling Services of Alberta and the Alberta Arts Foundation.

"He's very focused," Shillington said. "He's very concerned that we find positive solutions for the Aboriginal community. He sees that both economics and education really are the ways that we can solve the issues that we have in our society, in terms of Aboriginal people fully participating, contributing and benefiting from the opportunities that exist in Alberta. He's very committed to that and passionate about it."

According to hillington, NorQuest has programs that target Aboriginal education and provide a cultural context in addition to the academic context. The Ben Calf Robe Upgrading program is an example of this. Students who enroll in this program will be involved in core academic and culturally specific courses and have the chance to participate in a cultural camp each spring.

NorQuest has also just launched an Aboriginal police and security program.

"We've got interesting things happening at NorQuest that we refer to as inter-cultural," Shillington said. "Besides the significant Aboriginal population, about half of our Edmonton students are new Canadians so we have a very ethnically diverse population."

Healing ceremonies and counselling takes place in NorQuest's Aboriginal ceremonial room, just down the hall from the Muslim prayer room.

"Again, NorQuest is very inclusive in terms of celebrating what people bring to the college and, ultimately, to their communities and to their workplaces," Shillington said. "I think we are developing quite a positive reputation and a depth of expertise in what we call inter-cultural education, and that goes beyond just Aboriginal. It goes to embrace the full diversity of cultures."