Alberta residents, families owed millions in life-lease repayments form non-profit
Some Alberta seniors and their families who are owed millions of their own money by a housing provider have formed a non-profit entity to better lobby for action.
More than 160 former residents at retirement residences run by Christenson Developments say they're owed nearly $55 million through so-called life leases they signed with the operator.
Many seniors who moved out of Christenson buildings have been waiting in queues for years to be repaid hundreds of thousands of dollars they loaned to the company in exchange for upscale apartments to live in.
The group made up of residents and their families have been pushing for action by Christenson and the provincial government since last fall but recently formed the non-profit Alberta Life Lease Protection Society to put forward a more unified and louder message.
Karin Dowling, the society's president, told CTV News Edmonton that members of the society are pushing for the legislation to be retroactive.
"We're still really involved in these life leases because we have not been released from them," Dowling said.
"We're waiting for our funds, so we are still a part of the problem of the lack of legislation for life leases.
"We want to make sure that that can be heard. We've been told it's not impossible to make legislation retroactive, so we'd like to see the government become creative, think outside the box, come up with a solution, either in the legislation or some other means, in order to assist us in getting our rightful funds back."
Society members are meeting with Service Alberta Minister Dale Nally on Thursday for the first time to discuss their situation.
Nally's office tells CTV News Edmonton that life-lease legislation will be tabled in the coming weeks now that a government review of the practice is wrapping up.
Greg Christenson, president and co-owner of Christenson Developments, told CTV News Edmonton is a statement his company is working behind the scenes to free up the life-lease money for the families.
He said about 170 people are currently in the life-lease repayment queue and that about 400 residents are still on life-lease contracts at the nine Christenson facilities that have them.
Christenson says many of those people want to keep their life leases, though the long queue certainly adds some anxiety.
He maintains that life leases were, at one point, a good model and have saved residents more than $200 million in the decades they’ve been maintained at Christenson.
He said he knows families are frustrated but that the repayment process is slow and that many aspects of it are out of his control as far as timelines.
Christenson said Alberta should set up a life-lease insurance program to help prevent situations like this in the future.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Large numbers of New York City police officers begin entering Columbia University campus
Large numbers of New York City police officers began entering the Columbia University late Tuesday as dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters remained on the campus.
Poilievre kicked out of Commons after calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'wacko'
Testy exchanges between the prime minister and his chief opponent ended with the Opposition leader and one of his MPs being ejected from the House of Commons on Tuesday -- and the rest of Conservative caucus walking out of the chamber in protest.
Baby, grandparents among 4 people killed in wrong-way police chase on Ontario's Hwy. 401
A police chase which started with a liquor store robbery in Bowmanville Monday night ended in tragedy some 20 minutes later when a suspect fleeing police entered Highway 401 in the wrong direction and caused a pileup which killed an infant and the child's grandparents, as well as the suspect, investigators say.
Freeland leaves capital gains tax change out of coming budget implementation bill, here's why
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will be tabling yet another omnibus bill to pass a sweeping range of measures promised in her April 16 federal budget, though left out of the legislation will be the government's proposed capital gains tax change.
Sword-wielding man attacks passersby in London, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring 4 others
A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and police officers in a northeast London suburb Tuesday, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring four other people, British authorities said.
Man dies after suffering cardiac arrest while waiting in ER, widow wants investigation
When an ambulance took David Lippert to the hospital in March of 2023, the 68-year-old Kitchener, Ont., executive was hoping to find out why he was feeling weak and unable to walk. Some 24 hours later, he was found unresponsive in the ER.
CSE says it shared information on Chinese hacking of parliamentarians in 2022
While several MPs and senators say they were only recently made aware of China-backed hackers targeting them, the Communications Security Establishment, one of Canada's intelligence agencies, says it shared information about the incident with parliamentary officials in June of 2022.
WATCH Arnold Schwarzenegger spotted filming in Elora, Ont.
The name of the project has not been officially released although it’s widely believed to be the Netflix series FUBAR.
Eviction for landlord's use was legitimate, despite owners' partial move, B.C. court rules
A B.C. judge has upheld the eviction of a family from their North Vancouver townhouse, finding that the landlords did not take an unreasonable amount of time to move into the home after the tenants vacated it.