Federal government sets record straight on lease

Soon after taking office, the former First Nations University (FNUniv) president Doyle Anderson decided not to extend the lease to the university’s only tenant.

Last week, during the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations’ fall assembly it was made public that Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) was not renewing its lease resulting a $1-million loss in yearly revenue for the university.

Since opening its doors ten years ago, AANDC has leased the top floors of FNUniv.

The most-recent lease was set to expire on April 30, 2013 and on July 18, 2011, Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) contacted the FNUniv to initiate negotiations to extend it for a fiveyear term.

However, six months later, new president Doyle Anderson rejected the PWGSC offer to extend the lease advising PWGSC that due to the university’s planned future growth and development, it was not prepared to provide the amount of space required by PWGSC for ANNDC.

As a result, PWGSC had to find alternate accommodations.

It ne gotiated with FNUniv to extend the lease to April 30, 2014, to allow sufficient time to undertake a public lease tender process.

Then in late July 2012, PWGSC initiated and advertised a public tender process. PWGSC said the university had an opportunity to participate in the process but did not respond to the public tender.

After Anderson left the university in April to tend to family health issues, acting president Juliano Tupone attempted to renew the lease but by that time it was too late. The tendering process closed Aug. 9, 2012 and a new lease contract was awarded on Oct. 17, 2012, for space located at 1827 Albert St., with a May 2014 occupancy for AANDC.

“Since I came on as acting president, I decided along with the rest of the management team and in discussions with our board chair that it would be valuable to reach out to AANDC and indicate that we valued them as tenant and as a partner and we would be happy to have them stay in our building,” he said.

“We wanted to maintain them as a tenancy because we valued them as a tenant and certainly as a partner and a stakeholder,” he added.

The university is now working with a commercial realtor to find suitable tenants for the building. When AANDC moves, some of the space they currently occupy will be opened up for more classroom space.