BC and Saskatchewan Are Both Adding Nurse Practitioner Training Seats for 2026-27

Two provinces expand nurse practitioner training at the same time

British Columbia and Saskatchewan both added nurse practitioner training seats heading into the 2026-27 academic year, part of a wider push across Canada to put more primary care providers into communities short on family doctors. BC's expansion landed in 2025 across three university campuses. Saskatchewan's smaller expansion arrives for the 2026-27 intake through a program built for working registered nurses.

A nurse practitioner is a registered nurse who has completed a further graduate degree that qualifies them to diagnose conditions, order and interpret tests, and prescribe medication without a supervising doctor signing off on every case. Both expansions below train nurses who already hold an RN licence and clinical experience into that expanded role. Neither expansion opens new spots for students who have not yet started nursing school.

The new seats at a glance

British Columbia: 65 new seats across three campuses

British Columbia added 65 new nurse practitioner training seats across three universities: 30 at the University of British Columbia, 20 at the University of Northern British Columbia and 15 at the University of Victoria. The additions take the province's total nurse practitioner training capacity to 165 seats a year, up from 100 (Government of British Columbia ).

The province backs the expansion with $4.7 million a year in ongoing funding for the 65 new seats, on top of $17.5 million for UBC facility renovations and $4.1 million for UNBC facilities. In September 2025, UBC moved its 30 new seats out of the Vancouver campus into newly renovated space in Surrey, putting training closer to the Fraser Health region.

BC's Minister of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills, Jessie Sunner, framed the expansion around access to care, saying the new seats mean more people get timely, personalized care in their own communities. The province spread the 65 seats across five regions rather than concentrating them at one campus, matching training capacity to where BC needs more primary care providers, not only where the largest nursing schools already sit.

UVic adds a stream for nurses who already hold a master's

Alongside its 15 new seats, UVic added a program stream for registered nurses who already hold a master of nursing degree, moving them into the nurse practitioner specialization without repeating a full graduate degree.

Thompson Rivers University already runs a smaller program

Thompson Rivers University runs a separate 15-seat nurse practitioner program that opened in May 2023, backed by more than $1 million a year in ongoing provincial funding. TRU's program sat outside the 2025 expansion but adds to the province's overall training pipeline alongside UBC, UNBC and UVic.

Saskatchewan: 13 new seats in the Collaborative NP Program

Saskatchewan is expanding the Collaborative Nurse Practitioner Program, delivered jointly by Saskatchewan Polytechnic and the University of Regina. The province committed funding in its 2025-26 budget, and 13 new seats arrive starting in the 2026-27 academic year, taking total program capacity to 48 seats a year (Saskatchewan Polytechnic ).

The program is a two-year graduate-level degree open to registered nurses. Aside from a one-week residency in Regina during the second year, coursework runs online, and students complete clinical placements in their home communities. That structure lets a working RN in a smaller Saskatchewan community train as a nurse practitioner without relocating to Regina or Saskatoon for two years.

Why two provinces are expanding NP training at the same time

Both provinces are responding to the same pressure: not enough primary care providers, especially outside major cities. A nurse practitioner diagnoses, prescribes and manages most primary care independently, letting health authorities open more clinic spots without waiting on new family doctors. BC and Saskatchewan are training more of them in different ways. BC grows seats at existing university programs. Saskatchewan expands a program built specifically for RNs who stay working in their home community while they study.

The CNPP model matters for a province the size of Saskatchewan, where a working RN in a town far from Regina or Saskatoon would otherwise have to move or drop to part-time work to pursue a graduate nursing degree. Keeping coursework online and clinical placements local removes that trade-off for most of the two-year program.

What this means if you want to become a nurse practitioner

You need to be a registered nurse with clinical experience before you qualify for any of these programs. If you are in BC, more seats at UBC, UNBC and UVic mean better odds of admission for the 2026-27 intake than in prior years, particularly at UNBC and UVic where seat counts nearly doubled. If you are in Saskatchewan and already work as an RN in a smaller community, the Collaborative Nurse Practitioner Program's online structure and 13 new seats are worth checking against your own timeline, since you keep working while you study.

Check each program's own admissions page for prerequisites. Nurse practitioner programs typically require a set number of years of RN clinical practice before you apply, and that requirement varies by school.

Neither province's expansion changes how you get your initial RN licence. You still need a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and registration with your provincial nursing college before either of these graduate programs will consider your application. Treat the new seats as a longer-term planning input: if a nurse practitioner career is your goal, the extra capacity in BC and Saskatchewan gives you more realistic options once you have logged the clinical hours these programs expect.