PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE ALBERTA NATIVE NEWS.
On May 10, 2017 Herb Belcourt Park was unveiled in Sherwood Park, Alberta. The park is named in honour of local businessman, community leader, and philanthropist Herb Belcourt, who died later that year.
Belcourt was a founder of Belcourt Construction, Canative Housing Corporation and the Belcourt Brosseau Métis Award Fund, which supports Métis students furthering their education. To honour Belcourt’s years of service and contributions to the community, Sherwood Park and Strathcona County commissioned a plaque to adorn the newly renamed park.
In 1971, Belcourt cofounded the Canative Housing Corporation with his cousin Orval Belcourt and Métis lawyer George Brosseau. The nonprofit organization provided affordable housing to Métis people in Alberta. Between 1971 and 2005, the company purchased 179 homes in Edmonton and 49 homes in Calgary and rented them to Métis people at affordable rates. In addition to providing homes, Canative created a food co-op and an urban life skills course and opened a daycare in Edmonton.
In 2003, Belcourt and the other directors of Canative decided to invest in education. They gave the tenants of the Canative homes six months’ notice and worked with many of the families to buy their homes from the company.
In 2001, Belcourt and his business partners Orval Belcourt and George Brosseau created the Belcourt Brosseau Métis Award, a $13-million endowment for Métis students of Alberta to continue their education. Since its inception, the award has disbursed more than $6.7 million through over 1,500 awards to more than 1,000 Métis students studying at institutions across the province. The foundation continues to provide awards to Métis students.
In 2006, he published his memoir, Walking In the Woods: A Métis Journey, which chronicles his life in business and philanthropy. In 2011, Belcourt became a chair of the Native Counselling Homelessness Project. According to Belcourt’s autobiography, in 1974 he ran for the presidency of the Métis Association of Alberta out of frustration at how his company, Canative Housing, became the target of candidates in previous elections, who accused Canative of profiteering.
He lost the 1974 election to Stan Daniels. In 1977, Belcourt ran for the federal Conservative nomination in the Edmonton-Strathcona riding but lost to David Kilgour, who went on to win the riding in the 1979 election. In his autobiography, Belcourt said he ran for the nomination to see better housing made available across the country. He also wanted to set a good example for the Métis people of Canada, writing, “I wanted the Métis, all of us, to feel proud of ourselves, to get over negativity and defensiveness.”
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