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

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.