More than half of BC Housing’s board is being replaced

B.C.’s attorney general and housing minister has announced changes to the BC Housing Board of Commissioners.

“Effective immediately, the board is comprised of Allan Seckel and recently appointed board members Jill Kot, Sheila Taylor, Mark Sieben and Russ Jones,” the Ministry of Attorney General and Responsible Housing wrote in a release.

David Eby’s office announced Friday evening the firing of several board members for the crown agency, which came after an external review that called for greater oversight of the organization.

The opposition has questions about the board’s seemingly rapid changes.

“The fact he didn’t want to acknowledge nothing was wrong publicly for quite some time and to do a last-minute, late Friday afternoon massive change like he has makes one wonder just how bad this was,” Peter Milobar said, B.C. Liberals’ official opposition finance critic.

These concerns will be Eby’s to face, especially if he runs for NDP party leadership, according to the opposition critic.

The Ernst & Young review found that BC Housing lacked a strong process to determine the best ways to spend its funding, make decisions and hand over contracts.

“The board will continue overseeing governance of the organization and will ensure the implementation of best practices in view of the recently released external review,” the ministry said.

Eby said he’s confident the new board members, who were announced in late June, will take action on the report.

“They’ve grown very quickly and they needed that infrastructure in place to ensure they had the controls and the oversight not just within BC Housing but outside with the non-profit organizations that we work with to make sure we’re delivering housing and protecting taxpayer dollars,” Eby said.

The B.C. minister recently announced a 10-year and $7-billion commitment to provide more housing and support services across the province.

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