About Rural Impact

Elizabeth is driven each day by her passion for relationship building and contributing positively to her community. Born and raised in the most easterly point in North America, Elizabeth grew up surrounded by the essence of community. Translating that experience, and her hard-working Newfoundlander attitude to “help thy neighbor” in all that she does, Elizabeth brings 15 years of real estate development experience to each business relationship she builds through her business, Locale Real Estate Inc. With a passion and portfolio of land and housing development, her extensive understanding of home building, working with all levels of government and a variety of professional engineers, Elizabeth can guide clients through a range of services and projects. Supported by her diploma in Architectural Engineering Technology as well as a diploma in Project Management, on-site and corporate office experience, and being a part of teams that have injected over 2,500 units into the Canadian Housing Market, Elizabeth is a confident professional, leader and more importantly, an engaged community member looking to make an impact.

Myrna is a seasoned professional with 13 years of experience in the construction industry. Throughout her career, she has garnered extensive knowledge across various areas of expertise. Myrna has been both a witness and an active participant in the significant transformations within the affordable housing sector in her home country. Her efforts have been pivotal in addressing challenges related to land habilitation, land legalization, long-term urban development planning, and the provision of public services. Additionally, she has sought alternative solutions to expedite housing construction and reduce the substantial housing deficit.

Her contributions have been impactful at both the national and provincial government levels, as well as in the private sector. Myrna has served as an advisor on housing issues for the Ministry of Housing, the Ministry of Drinking Water, and the Government of the Province of Bolivar. Notably, she established the departmental public housing policy for a four-year term and successfully managed one of the most ambitious affordable housing projects in her country in 2012, overseeing the construction of 4,000 affordable housing units within two years.

Further demonstrating her expertise and entrepreneurial spirit, Myrna founded her own legal and commercial consulting company. This venture supported construction companies in the legal processes of deeding and delivering properties to final owners. She has designed innovative, agile, scalable, and effective mechanisms for real estate delivery and developed proprietary software to streamline this process.

In 2021, Myrna relocated to Canada, bringing with her a wealth of knowledge and experience, ready to make significant contributions to the field.

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Pivot Housing Solutions was founded in April 2024, to support the community housing and services sector in the successful development of new housing. We believe in thinking outside the box to craft innovative solutions tailored to the unique needs of each project and community.

At Pivot, we see the housing challenge as a single quandary across one ecosystem, transcending traditional divides between market, affordable, rental, ownership, and emergency housing solutions. We are eager to collaborate with stakeholders and landholders to create diverse supply and tenure options, ensuring sustainable, desirable, and dignified housing solutions for all in Atlantic Canada.

Pivot brings the knowledge, creativity, and know-how to work with community-based organizations on their projects from concept to completion, having been involved in housing and community development initiatives across Canada. Our national network and years of experience means we are plugged into a wide range of resources, best practices, funding opportunities and connections that will help organizations reach their goals smoothly and effectively.

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As President and CEO of Rural Impact Canada I lead our team of passionate housing advocates, consultants, and project managers in the delivery of our programs. In this role I also manage and lead the development and design of new programs, continued investment in current programs, and implementation of our national scaling strategy. I bring to this role over 15 years of experience and proven track record building developments in Ontario and across Canada. I grew up in Perth Ontario, a small municipality within Lanark County, and these rural roots driven my passion to support development in housing in small and rural municipalities. My passion to support the development of housing in small and rural municipalities is fueled by making sure that our seniors, and all Canadians, have a safe and affordable place to call home.

The programs that Rural Impact Canada has created provide solutions to root issues that impact development in small and rural municipalities. Often overlooked, we bring a voice to these municipalities across Canada and demonstrate the critical of a role that these municipalities have in addressing our national housing and affordability crisis. Our programs highlight the powerful impact and untapped opportunities that exists in small and rural municipalities and how providing solutions to their common barriers can result in more housing faster and for less.

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Glenn Fraser acts as the VP of Finance and Accounting for Rural Impact Canada.

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At MNP, Glenn is the senior vice president and national leader of our private enterprise team and is based out of Toronto. Glenn brings more than 25 years of experience to his role proactively serving privately held and owner-managed businesses in a variety of industries. In addition to assurance and tax compliance, he helps clients with business strategy, financing, tax strategy, and succession planning.

Glenn has extensive experience in the construction industry having served on the board of Toronto Zenith Contracting and acted as CFO for Arxx Building Products.

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Prior to his current role, Glenn was the Vice President and National Leader of MNP’s Food and Beverage and Cannabis team. Glenn was also a member of the Firm’s Board of Directors from 2015 to 2022. Glenn

Glenn is an active community volunteer with a long history of board appointments with several charities, including Childhood Cancer Canada, where he served as board chair for more than a decade.

Glenn earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from York University. He is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA), qualifying as a Chartered Accountant (CA).

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The Eastern Ontario Regional Network is a registered non-profit organization with over 14 years of high-performing experience, particularly as it pertains to supporting municipalities through large-scale private-public partnerships projects. While our historical focus has traditionally been on broadband and cellular services, our experience transcends far beyond the telecommunications sector. We possess the capability to amalgamate diverse expertise required to deliver tailored solutions that align with the customized needs of municipalities and their residents.

2B Developments has provided project management, construction management, development consulting and development design services, since 2018. Our leadership team has over 20 years of combined relevant experience that emphasizes our ability to complete everything from A to Z. We have a wide range of completed projects that speaks to our successful track record of walking our clients through conception to completion. As a result, we have created hundreds of residential units and our impact is still growing. 2B is actively involved in several housing project initiatives in Lanark County, Frontenac County, Ottawa, and surrounding regions.

I love being outside. Whether it’s on foot, on skis or in a canoe or sailboat – I love all the seasons. And being outside, I really see the changes that are happening to our environment – violent storms, flash floods, droughts, colder cold, warmer warm. This is why I am particularly keen to help get sustainable technologies to market as quickly as possible.

I believe that profitable, well-run businesses are the foundation of a successful society. They create employment, support self-actualization and allow people to come together impactfully. My role with Kingsford is help as many companies as possible to achieve this.

In my career I‘ve worked in almost every vertical market with companies large and small (and many small ones that became large). This broad experience enables me to quickly understand new products and services, and the clients they can serve, and develop effective ways to get them to market.”

Andrew held executive roles with Bell Mobility (launched cellular services in eastern Canada), iSTAR Internet (created Canada's first national ISP), Mitel (expanded PBX sales though global channels), Telesat (created Canada wide presence for satcom services). With Kingsford he advised Lightspeed Commerce through their start-up phase and funding (now valued at close to $3B); developed and delivered an SME training program for Apple's North American independent retail network; worked with YOU-i.tv to develop strategy leading to international market success. Additionally he has helped many European and South American firms enter the North American market place.

He holds a BA (Hon) from Concordia University and an EMBA from the Telfer School of Business at the University of Ottawa. He is an advisor to Sustainable Development Technology Canada, a mentor with Invest Ottawa’s Scale-Up Program and Executive in Residence with the cleantech incubator Foresight Canada.  He is a guest lecturer at the University of Ottawa and past committee chair with the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce. He was presented with Scouts Canada’s Order of the Caribou and is fluent in English and French.

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Helen has spent her career working with companies to develop market entry strategies, identify acquisition targets and negotiate joint venture agreements. As a consultant, her practice is focused on issues of data access, governance, privacy and the implications of smart technologies including Prop-tech, Blockchain, AI and Distributed Energy Resources. 

Throughout her career she has worked to optimize business practices and drive efficiencies in engineering, procurement and construction. While President of SKY Solar Developments Helen was responsible for creating and implementing the partner network and navigating the challenges of working with governments and agencies, developers, financiers, investors, OEMs, constructors and off-takers or portfolio managers. 

Her strengths are a passion for understanding customers, analyzing markets and acting upon these insights to transform both the company and their customer experience. 

Helen strives to create transparency and a collaborative work environment based on strong ethics. She is driven by personal values that ensure employees, customers and colleagues are treated with respect and dignity. Helen joined the EAI Advisory Board because she values the people who work here and knows that she can learn with and from the team — while still having fun and creating value for our clients.

When not on a Zoom call Helen enjoys cycling, hiking, yoga and being in her garden eating and drinking with good friends.

Pierre Dufresne has spent over 30 years as an industry land development planner and Vice-President of Land Development for Cavanagh Communities and prior to that Tartan Land Corporation. Pierre has also held planning positions at the former Township of Cumberland and Region of Ottawa Carleton. Pierre has obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Geography from Carleton University in Ottawa and a Master of Arts degree in Public Policy and Public Administration from Concordia University in Montreal, which is his home town. He has also been active with the three levels of the homebuilders associations where he is Past President of the Greater Ottawa Homebuilders Association from 2013-2015, Past President of the Ontario Homebuilders Association 2017-2018, and now sits as President of the Lanark Leeds Homebuilders Association. Besides these activities Pierre enjoys spending time on the golf course in the summer and the ski hill in the winter.