Pastor defends Rosewood church's role in P3 school site troubles in Regina

Pastor Jerven Weekes says Rosewood Park Alliance Church shouldn't shoulder all the blame for the difficulties it has had in meeting its obligations to service land for a new school in Regina's northwest.

The church is servicing the land, located near the church building, under contract with the City of Regina. This is where the provincial government is constructing one of the city's three P3 schools.

In March, the city served Rosewood with a notice of default because it has failed to provide a $3-million letter of credit. It's also failed to pay its bills and keep up with the planning schedule.

In a recent presentation to city council, Weekes said his church takes full responsibility for the troubles.

However, in his first interview since the story came to light, Weekes also pointed out that the organization is one small part of a complex agreement involving two levels of government.

"Everyone has a picture that we have control of everything that has been happening," Weekes told CBC's iTeam.

"And you have to remember that we are a third party in a three-party agreement and we have no control over processes that the city put in place."

• Regina giving school developer until Friday to get finances in order

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On Monday, city council gave Rosewood until 4 p.m. Friday to get that performance bond in place, develop a schedule to repay outstanding creditors and present a credible plan to finish the servicing job by the end of the year.

If Rosewood doesn't deliver then the city will take over the project and finish the work. That would end up costing taxpayers at least $1.5 million.

What went wrong?

On Dec.10, Rosewood signed a servicing agreement with the City of Regina promising to have a $3.184-million performance bond in place by Dec.14; just four days after the contract was signed.

However it failed to deliver that bond to the city, which was required as a guarantee that Rosewood would get the job done.

It still hasn't provided that bond to this day.

The executive director of city planning and development, Diana Hawryluk, told CBCs iTeam, "We were working in good faith with the developer that they were working as they've indicated with different development partners in order to get that bond in place."  

Weekes said he couldn't get into details about why Rosewood failed to deliver that bond just four days after it said it would. However he explained that an agreement with a partner for a performance bond fell apart at the last minute.

That's not the only deadline Rosewood missed. It was also supposed to have a landscaping plan completed by Feb. 1 but that's still not done.

Yes we have met deadlines and yes we may have missed a deadline,- Jerven Weekes, pastor of Rosewood Park Alliance Church

"Yes we have met deadlines and yes we may have missed a deadline," Weekes said.

He said the church met the most important deadline which was getting the land serviced to its contractually obligated level by Oct. 31 so construction of the school could go ahead.

Church's role is misunderstood: pastor

Weekes said though his church is commonly referred to in the media as a developer, that's not technically correct.

"We're not a developer," said Weekes. "We're not a Harvard (Developments) or a Dream (Developments) or any of those guys. We have a vision that we've looked for one of those guys to come along side to partner with us to help us fulfil that vision."

Weekes said for 40 years the church has had a dream to build a neighbourhood on the 20 hectares of land they own surrounding their building.

He said that will enable them to serve the community and fulfill the mandate they believe they have from the Bible to "provide shelter for those who need shelter and take care of, as James (book of the Bible) tells us, our orphans and widows and those who are elderly and that's what our primary focus is. Our desire isn't for us to be a developer to build market housing."

He said the church has been trying to move this project forward on its own while it looks for the right development partner.

"The worst thing that we could do is have the wrong partner," Weekes explained. 

October 2014: Rosewood approved by council to develop neighbourhood

That lack of a partner didn't stop council from approving Rosewood's request to develop a neighbourhood back in October 2014.

In a report, city administration recommended council not approve Rosewood, arguing the project raised a host of concerns.

The report says Rosewood's plan was inconsistent with the city's official community plan, there's a "risk that Rosewood Park will remain an isolated and incomplete area for many years," and "there's no guarantee that the developer would actually construct the types of housing and recreation facilities that have been proposed."

In that meeting Rosewood's planner, Jason Petrunia told council if the project was approved construction would begin in the summer of 2015, promising "a shovel in the ground by next summer once we can get through the approvals and get the servicing agreement finalized."

He said that would mean occupancy of homes in early 2016.

Councillor Bob Hawkins said he supported Rosewood's proposal because "I don't want to see the seniors, in particular and those looking for affordable housing to have to wait an additional two years."

Fougere also voiced his support for the project and disagreed with administration's contention that this project violated the city's official community plan.

"We are not compromising our principles at all," Fougere said. "In fact we are affirming them. Part of what we're supposed to do here is to respond to how our city wants to grow by those who build the city for us," he said, meaning developers.

July 2015: Council approves Rosewood as northwest school site

The next summer there were no shovels in the ground on Rosewood's land. In fact to this day, there has been no development of new homes or facilities other than the school.

"I have a phrase that says 'There are no such thing as unrealistic goals. Just unrealistic expectations,'" Weekes said.

"We may have a time frame but there's still a process the city itself takes us through and goes through and so we still have to respect the city's process."

Despite that lack of progress, city council approved Rosewood as the site for the northwest school in July 2015.  

Fourgere told council, "I unequivocally support this recommendation in absolute terms."

The reason, he argued, was that Rosewood had a leg up on all the other developers in the area because council had approved Rosewood for development in 2014. 

"What's the next logical place? It's Rosewood. Clearly it is," Fougere said.

He said that despite the fact that city administration, in a July 2015 report to council, recommended the school go to Dream Developments, because it has deep pockets and lots of experience.

That same report administration recommended against Rosewood because, it said, the risks were too high.

"It is unclear if they (Rosewood) have the financial means to do any future development of the area," the report said, "which means we may not be able to recover the $3.045 million loan and the servicing agreement fees."

April 2016: Rosewood asks for financial concessions

On Monday night at council meeting, a letter from Rosewood asked council for millions of dollars in concessions including that loan and those servicing agreement fees.

According to a council report "the developer re-stated requests for forgiveness of the $3 million advance and $2.68 million of servicing agreement fees. The developer also requested additional relief through the removal of approximately $1 million of infrastructure from the servicing agreement."

There's nothing negative about this at all.- Terry Hincks, Regina city councillor

Council rejected the request and gave Rosewood a deadline of Friday to come up with a plan to meet its obligations and get its financial house in order.

Rosewood says it will meet that deadline with the help of a new development partner, Westridge Construction.

Councillor Terry Hincks, who's enthusiastically supported Rosewood's development all along, told CBC's iTeam in his view, "All the problems are solved."

In fact he wonders what all the fuss has been about.

"I'm even more enthusiastic about it now," Hincks said. "There's really no story here other than it's just going ahead."