OLDS – The non-profit organization responsible for several life leases at its continuing care lodges throughout the Mountain View County area has not expressed any concerns regarding the provincial government’s proposed amendment to the Consumer Protection Act to include life leases.
“We were made aware of the issue around life leases initially brought forward in the fall of 2023 due to some challenges faced in the private sector,” said Stacey Stilling, the chief administrative officer of Mountain View Seniors' Housing, which operates lodges throughout the region including in Olds, Sundre and Didsbury and Carstairs.
The provincial government, Stilling added, had “reached out to all operators with life lease suites in the fall to have some discussion about the concept and how it all works, which can be different based on the operator.”
Having been “included in the discussions from the beginning,” she said the proposed amendment to the act had been anticipated.
“While we did not know exactly where they may land with regulation, it was certainly not a surprise,” she told the Albertan in response to follow-up questions.
In a press release issued on March 18, the provincial government announced it had tabled legislation, also known as Bill 12, said to protect Albertans and ensure consistency in contracts with life lease housing operators.
Life leases provide an alternative form of housing geared toward supporting independent living that is typically tailored toward seniors.
The proposed amendment to Alberta’s Consumer Protection Act comes in response to “challenges faced by some life leaseholders and their families” and “would increase consumer protection by providing consistency and ensuring timely repayment of consumer funds,” reads the statement in part.
Should the legislation pass, the government says it would address regulatory gaps to help Albertans who choose the housing option while also “establishing clear and consistent criteria for life lease contracts.”
To date, life leases remain unregulated in the province, and Alberta would join Saskatchewan and Manitoba as the only jurisdictions in Canada to legislate the units.
“When we heard some life leaseholders and their families were struggling to receive their money back from their entrance fees and that their contracts were unclear, we took action,” Dale Nally, minister of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction, was quoted as saying in the presser.
If it passes, the provincial government says the updated act would:
• set out minimum requirements for what life lease contracts must contain;
• mandate the return of entrance fees to be within 180 days of termination of the lease;
• establish the ability to create interest penalties for entrance fees not repaid within the required 180 days;
• mandate a 10-day cooling-off period after contracts are signed;
• set out broad regulation making authority to further regulate the life lease industry, including the authority to establish security requirements for the life lease industry should additional rules become necessary; and,
• establish that non-compliance with these new requirements will be deemed offences and will be subject to enforcement under the act’s existing framework.
Additionally, the new rules would be applicable only to contracts that are signed after the bill receives royal assent.
The official Opposition NDP critic for Service Alberta panned the amendment in a press statement that claims the government’s proposal falls short.
“The UCP’s Bill 12 does nothing to allay the concerns of Albertans who have millions of dollars tied up in life leases,” Parmeet Singh Boparai was quoted as saying.
“This legislation enables almost all the decisions to be made by regulation without democratic debate or discussion in the Legislature as would be appropriate on a matter as important as this,” he said.
“It is important that the new legislation apply not only to future, but also to current life lease holders. Given the UCP’s track record of not listening to Albertans but rather siding with for-profit entities, this leaves us with great concern for families who need this government to stand up for them.”
Yet life leases are more often than not provided by non-profit organizations such as MVSH, which has actually experienced a declining demand for such units, said Stilling.
When the facilities in Sundre and Olds opened, they initially had 18 and 12 life lease units available respectively, she said, adding MVSH did not have such units at any of its other lodges. And for their part, the interest for such accommodations has waned.
“Over the years, MVSH has not seen a strong amount of interest with the concept of the model that other communities in different geographic areas of the province have experienced,” she said.
So while there to this day remains the same number of suites, the reduced demand for the life lease model experienced by MVSH has resulted in most of the rooms becoming rental units, she said.
“We actually now have very few residents who are involved in the model. From what we have seen in the legislation, MVSH operations is not worried,” she said.
But even if that were not the case, she seemed supportive of the proposed changes.
“I don’t think it is a bad thing to have some specifically laid out parameters designed to make sure clarity of the models and roles and responsibilities of not only the operators, but the leaseholders as well, are in place.”
