NCC Development lacked ‘full team’ to deliver on Nunavut 3000 agreement: CEO
Clarence Synard speaks alongside Nunavut Housing Corp. leaders as MLAs review auditor general report on housing
NCC Development CEO Clarence Synard speaks in the Nunavut legislature Friday. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)
When NCC Development Ltd. signed on to build 2,000 homes as part of the Nunavut 3000 initiative, it lacked a “full team,” CEO Clarence Synard said.
Synard made the remarks before the Nunavut legislature’s government oversight committee Friday, where MLAs have been reviewing the auditor general’s 2025 report on public housing in Nunavut.
Part of that report noted that Nunavut Housing Corp. is facing “challenges to meet its public housing targets under the Nunavut 3000 Strategy by 2030.”
While committee members were examining that issue, Netsilik MLA Joseph Quqqiaq asked Synard if NCC had the “resources, personnel, equipment, corporate structure to deliver” on Nunavut 3000.
“At the time of the signing of the agreement, we did not have a full team in place to be able to address this big build-out of housing,” Synard said.
“Prior to [Oct. 18, 2022, when the Nunavut 3000 agreement was signed] and continuing on after that date, we continuously worked on building up our team to be able to deliver on the contracts that we had agreed to with Nunavut Housing Corp.”
Synard estimated there are up to 230 employees working across the communities, at least 100 of whom are Inuit.
He said training a workforce has been another important part of Nunavut 3000, and that has included getting people into the trades.
In addition to workforce-related challenges, Synard said communities’ lack of infrastructure and other construction-related issues have presented delays.
For example, he said, there was one lot in a community where work was set to begin. But the discovery of an electrical cable below ground temporarily paused that build.
“We’ve had a lot of challenges with it, but I also think that through collaborating with [Nunavut Housing Corp.] that we’ve been very successful in pivoting and being able to work towards delivering on these much-needed units,” he said.
The government oversight committee’s two-day hearing on the auditor general’s May 2025 report on public housing closed Friday. Other topics covered included maintenance issues and discrepancies in how Nunavut Housing Corp. allocates housing units.
Deputy auditor general Andrew Hayes said during Thursday’s proceedings that his office is likely to conduct a followup report on this audit and on the way Nunavut Housing Corp. implements its recommendations.
I am somewhat relieved with the responses to the Committee’s questions. Still a long way to go though.
This article is making sound like NCC should have had idle people sitting around before the signing and the day of signing.
Actually, if you are lining yourself up and claiming to be able to enter into a contract that exceeds a Billion dollars, and then you sign that contract. You kind of need to have the structure, resources, material and equipment to be able to deliver. Or at very least the plan to do so. Since the delivery dates are not being met and are in some cases going to be over 2 years late, and the builds are over budget by $10’s of millions. Not only did they not have the “team” they didn’t have a plan! Therefore, the emphasis on the point made in the headline of the article, kind of seems very appropriate.
NHC – “We need to deliver 3000 houses. Is your company big enough to do this on your own?”
NCC – “No.”
NHC – “Will you sign this contract saying you’ll do it anyway? It’s for $134 million.”
NCC – “Yes.”
NHC – “When you run into problems delivering this many units, will they be included in the $134 million?”
NCC – “No, we will send you additional invoices when problems come up.”
NHC – “Deal. Here’s the dotted line.”
A few minutes after my post story shows up again.??????
Time for Clarence to step aside and have someone else lead NCC. It’s clear he has failed. He said it himself, they did not have the resources, personnel, equipment, corporate structure to deliver at the time of the signing. Has anything improved since then?
First of all i lived in Yellowknife for many years had many contacts in drywall and painting throughout NWT and now Nunavut from the 80s into 2000s I’ve never seen more money wasted in my entire career than NCC they need too get a real company in there and not people only there too collect their stamps for unemployment
Stop Nunavut 3000 immediately. Let’s not worry about the people that need homes, the promises have been broken for decades , why not continue with those broken promises? The crisis is so big and I do not know why anyone would try and tackle it as it will never be solved based on the scrutiny of people. It is sad that we call this place Canada and yet we have so many people in the North still doing without. Perhaps relocate the north to the south? Hats off to those who at least try
Nunavut has received hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government just for housing, it’s the GN that is failing Nunavut, the GN is too bureaucratic and controlled by it, our MLAs have no visions or authority and lack leadership.
Auditor general has outlined all the issues year after year with recommendations to help improve things.
The GN has a yearly budget of nearly 3 billion dollars, yet we can’t get housing, wellness centres, much needed infrastructure for Nunavut because our GN is too dysfunctional and incompetent, yet not changes in sight. How is out government going to improve? When is our government going to prioritize Nunavut and help build local capacity instead of the huge economic drain of transient workers that come and go leading the GN?
Obviously this has not worked very well and we need changes at the GN, it’s incredibly bureaucratic and toxic to work at the GN,
Well out of those $3 billion, the GN has to dole out $180 million to DOJ for all the crime in the territory. Which is an absolutely crazy number.
Department of Health takes $600 million, $90M of which is for Mental Health & Addictions and $56M just for travel and transportation (also crazy numbers).
$230M goes to Family Services, over 90% of which is for social services, income support, and poverty reduction.
Then, of course, another $313M goes to NHC for their operations. That’s just their operating expenses right now, it doesn’t include new development. That’s about $300 biweekly for every single person in Nunavut is going into NHC’s O&M.
Then there’s NHC’s $110 million Capital Budget.
There’s around 40,673 people in Nunavut, around 26,040 are 18+ while 14,633 are under 18. Just dissolve NHC and the Income Assistance program, reduce 5000 GN positions’ pay by $800 biweekly (with the following payment as make-up) to save another $104,000,000, and then give every adult in the territory $900 biweekly and tell them to find their own housing.
Liquidate all of NHC’s assets by auction to residents of that community only, limit one unit purchased per adult. Doesn’t matter if somebody buys a house for $10,000. It’ll save the GN money.
Then every family unit (couple+) in the territory has an income of at least $46,800. If they both had jobs at NorthMart paying $20/hr, all of a sudden they have a combined gross income of $125,000 with entry-level jobs. Double-income GN workers that were previously making $250,000 combined get a bump up to $255,200. Not only that, but watch entrepreneurship skyrocket and social services and justice costs plummet.
Then watch developers start building all over the territory all on their own.
Only in Nunavut. Whether it’s a business, or politicians. Never prepared.
This shows us how our government has been lacking in building capacity in Nunavut, just one trade school in all of Nunavut, the lack of commitment to build local capacity in all sectors have been brought to light here.
Back in the NWT days we had so many more opportunities for training, better education, trades and better support for taking courses. That seems to be gone now with this government.
Also with a Premier who likes to dress things up and make it look better than what it really is, he has shown us a lot of smoke and mirrors, his approach and how he does things seem to brush things under the rug and pretend everything is running smoothly, difficult to trust a person like that, I can see why some mlas wanted to replace him and the timing unfortunately did not work as some of the mlas we’re not there to vote.
The gong show at the GN just keeps getting worse, at least we can look forward to the election and hopefully get some needed change, remember these current mlas, are they the ones you want to represent us? Has your mla represented you and your community? Have they did a good job? Elect someone that can work to make changes at the GN.
It is a known fact that Qulliq is at around half strength to provide Nunavut with electricity, which is a known, constant and critical need.
It is a known fact the vacancy rate within the Government of Nunavut overall is north of 30% at any given time, and these unspent salaries is a major source of supplemental funding for government programs and projects.
That a private company had the audacity to not have a team in place to deliver on a project at the time the commitment was made is not news. In Nunavut, it is a given.
NCC bought my house – when I couldn’t get a rental I begged them to let me rent it until I could. Nope. Had people moving in right away. Left it empty all winter and the pipes exploded flooding the entire crawl space and street. NCC is not a well run company. Time for an overhaul.
To achieve Nunavut 3000, they need to expand home ownership and stop relying on public housing.
Unfortunately not too many people can actually afford home ownership.
Sky high heating fuel costs
Sky high insurance costs when you have a mortgage
Sky high electricity
Sky high Repairs and maintenance $200 for a call out minimum, not everyone is an OBM or a Plumber and even them sources the needed parts to fix a problem could take forever as the supply chain is very limited in Nunavut (outside of Iqaluit & Rankin)
Home ownership is the key to solving Nunavuts housing woes but at the moment home ownership is a pipe dream for many.