Hottest seat in the house
Arviat mayor to chair Nunavut Housing Corp. board
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, April 2, 2014
ARVIAT
Minister Responsible for the Housing Corporation George Kuksuk named Arviat Mayor Bob Leonard as chair of the board of directors this past month.
Leonard replaces Eugene Lysy of Thunder Bay, Ontario, who had six months remaining on his term.
The Arviat mayor was a founding member of the Housing Corporation's board of directors and brings 30 years of experience in the construction industry to the threeyear term.
He is in his third term as Arviat mayor.
Leonard said the appointment came as a big surprise.
He said he accepted it because he agrees with the government's position that Nunavut boards should be chaired by people from the North.
"It's a huge job with no easy answers," said Leonard.
"I'll give it my best, and work with what's a pretty good team, to do as much as we can during the time I am chair of the corporation."
Leonard said the model being used to provide housing in Nunavut is not sustainable.
He said Nunavut cannot continue to build public housing at the rate it's needed with the system in place to pay for and maintain it.
"We really need to go out and look at the other practices in the world.
"There has to be a way out of this mess we're in.
"Continuing to do the same thing we've always done is not the answer.
"There's not enough money in Canada to build the number of units we need and maintain them."
Leonard said there are some concepts he'd like to see explored further, such as developer-built subdivisions.
He said maybe the Housing Corp.'s job is to subsidize rent, instead of build, own and maintain units.
"I don't know the answers yet, but there are some other things I'd like to look at.
"The board met on March 27, but my father died the night before, so I had some other things to take care of.
"But the duty of the board is to help steer the corporation towards finding a model that will work for us.
"It's a co-operative effort, with the board being part of the corporation, so we're all on the same team."
