Calculation of Buddhist land holdings could lead to better enforcement of land limits, group hopes
Key question of indirect control of land has never been tested under landmark P.E.I. law
An investigation into Buddhist land holdings in P.E.I. ordered by Minister of Land Steven Myers could provide the first legal test of measures in the Lands Protection Act meant to prevent concentration of land ownership across multiple linked corporations.
It could also peel back the curtain to provide Islanders with a glimpse into how that landmark piece of legislation is being enforced — something that hasn't been made public for more than a decade.
On Feb. 4, Myers directed the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission to investigate the land holdings of the Great Wisdom Buddhist Institute (GWBI) and the Great Enlightenment Buddhist Institute Society (GEBIS) "to determine whether the corporations have contravened the [Lands Protection Act] or regulations."
In his letter to IRAC, Myers referred to a specific amendment to the act from 2022 that refers to direct and indirect control of land, representing the latest attempt by Island lawmakers to prevent large corporations with deep pockets from getting around the intent of the act.
LISTEN | This week's episode of the This is P.E.I. podcast takes a deeper dive into how much land Buddhist groups own on the Island:
The Lands Protection Act is a unique piece of legislation first introduced in the 1980s that sets limits on the amount of P.E.I. land that individuals and corporations can own.
It also requires corporations and non-residents to apply and receive cabinet approval for any land purchase of more than five acres.
"We've been speaking for generations now of loopholes in the Lands Protection Act," said Boyd Allen, a member of the grassroots Coalition for the Protection of P.E.I. Lands. The coalition has been calling for a much wider review of corporate and non-resident land ownership in the province, but has welcomed the current smaller-scope review into Buddhist land holdings.
Allen said a thorough investigation in this case "would provide a clear snapshot of where we need to bolster the LPA," which he hopes leads to more proactive enforcement of the land limits for all parties — not just the two groups named by the minister for the current review.
Buddhist groups welcome chance to end 'speculation'
Both GWBI and GEBIS have denied suggestions that they own more land than allowed by law, and say they welcome the investigation.
"There's so many rumours going around. I'd much rather have everything out in [the] clear … just base everything on facts," said Sabrina Chiang with GWBI. "Speculation… it's not a healthy way to live and it's not good for the community."
Provincial land records show that both organizations are well below the ownership limit of 3,000 acres for corporations. The records show GEBIS owns 30 parcels of land, totalling about 580 acres; GWBI owns 22 parcels totalling 663 acres.
Charitable tax filings from the two corporations show they claimed a combined $161 million in assets in 2023, including $78 million worth of land and buildings.
Both groups also say their land holdings should be counted separately, and not combined as part of the larger Taiwan-based Tibetan Buddhist movement called Bliss and Wisdom, with which both are associated.
There's no way to know if IRAC will consider each corporation's holdings separately, or whether it might consider other corporations related to Bliss and Wisdom. A previous investigation conducted by IRAC that concluded in 2018 included GEBIS, GWBI and three other corporations: Moonlight International Foundation, Grain Essence Garden Inc.; and Splendid Essence Restaurant Inc.
The results of that investigation have never been made public.
Drilling down into publicly available information on any of those corporations can lead a person down a rabbit hole of corporations which seem to bear some commonalities — though that's not to say they would be deemed to be under the same control.
For example, land titles owned by Moonlight International link back to the Charlottetown address of the Splendid Essence Restaurant, owned by Splendid Essence Restaurant Inc.
In the P.E.I. government's corporate registry, Splendid Essence lists the same shareholders as Grain Essence Garden Inc. The corporate mailing address for Grain Essence Garden leads to the Leezen organic food store in Charlottetown, on land owned by Canada Prajna Wisdom Co. Ltd., a federally registered corporation. One of the directors listed by the federal government for that corporation owns a parcel of land in Cornwall that also comes up as the corporate address for yet another corporation: Moonlight Charities Inc.
But even if all these were counted together, their land holdings would still fall below the limits set out in the Lands Protection Act, totalling 2,275 acres.
Other land holdings that might also be considered as related to the Buddhist expansion into P.E.I. include 504 acres owned by Hopetown Development Company, which is linked to a proposed residential development, along with 499 acres held by the spiritual leader of Bliss and Wisdom, Master Zhen Ru, under her birth name Meng Rong Jin.
All these land holdings taken together amount to 3,278 acres — still within the limits of the Lands Protection Act when exemptions for non-arable land are factored in, and well short of the 17,000 acres the Coalition for the Protection of P.E.I. Lands has suggested is controlled by Bliss and Wisdom.
That 17,000-acre figure was included in a 2023 story published by the Toronto Globe and Mail, though that story made it clear the Globe had not confirmed the figure.
GWBI and GEBIS have both asked the coalition for a list of land parcels it used to arrive at the figure. CBC News has also asked for that list, but the coalition has said it's not able to provide the information.
"Numerous media outlets have attempted to investigate these claims, but none have been able to obtain any evidence to substantiate them," GEBIS said in a Feb. 6 statement. "The overly inflated figure has caused fear and division within our community."
In announcing the new investigation, Myers said this: "What it comes down to — and this is the concern that you will hear around the area that we're standing [in] here now, in Three Rivers — is the link[s], and who is connected to who, and are all the connections together one entity and are they over their land holdings?
"I think that's what this investigation is going to find out."
Should individual land holdings be included?
Questions have also been raised as to whether corporations falling under Bliss and Wisdom have been involved in land purchases made by individual monks, nuns, lay people or their family members.
At a standing committee meeting in October 2020, Cory Deagle, then a backbench MLA and chair of the legislature's standing committee on natural resources, brought forward multiple internal emails he said were from GWBI.
One email, relating to the potential purchase of a home, included a suggestion to "pretend that the lay people are buying first for better negotiation and then transfer to GWBI later before closing."
Another email included a list of 12 residential properties, whether they were winterized, and what they might be used for. At the committee meeting, it was disclosed that some of the properties belonged to GWBI while others were owned by individuals.
Another email posed a question: "The land holding of one monk exceeds 750 acres. Should he file a report with IRAC as prescribed in LPA right now?"
Yet another email disclosed that a house purchase would include "five buyers to hold title to avoid IRAC application" — apparently in order to reduce the number of acres per buyer to five or less, below the threshold at which a non-resident must apply for and receive cabinet approval to purchase property in the province.
CBC News has found other titles where land purchases were similarly able to go forward with multiple buyers, including two parcels of land in Valleyfield that in 2017 were sold to a group including 15 non-resident buyers, all from the same province in northern China.
The next year, the combined 75 acres of land were sold to a single resident land owner.
"We're not perfect and we made some mistakes but we never have the intention to lie or to avoid or to cheat," Yvonne Tsai, a nun with GWBI, said at the 2020 committee meeting.
GWBI does not control, or we have no interference in the land or the personal activities of individual nuns.— Joanna Ho
"In the first few years, maybe we were lacking of local knowledge and we were advised by some people [on] what things can be done locally, but later on, we realized maybe that's not the correct way to do it and we fixed it."
Joanna Ho also attended that 2020 meeting on behalf of GWBI. In an interview with CBC News last week, she said that at the time of those emails, the organization was helping to bridge language and cultural barriers with individuals in purchasing or maintaining properties on the Island.
She said that assistance has since stopped.
"GWBI does not control, or we have no interference in the land or the personal activities of individual nuns," Ho said.
Concerns about Irving land holdings too
Concerns have also been raised about other corporations that could own more land than allowed under the Lands Protection Act.
A CBC News investigation last fall found that 20 corporations with ties to the Irving family own more than 12,000 acres on Prince Edward Island.
In the legislature last November, Myers said concerns about Irving-related land holdings had "been fabricated by the Green Party."
In February, he provided a more nuanced response to the question of the Irvings, saying public pressure and threats against municipal council members in Three Rivers, where GWBI and GEBIS own land, made those groups' holdings a bigger priority.
After that investigation, Myers said, "The door is open for us to investigate whatever entities we need to to satisfy the public that we've done everything we can do to protect the land in P.E.I."
A key to addressing the public unrest that has surfaced at public meetings of Three Rivers council will be to make the findings of the new investigation public, which Myers has pledged to do.
The minister and a legislative standing committee have both recently requested IRAC provide a copy of the report from its 2018 investigation, to no avail. In both cases, the commission responded with a letter saying it was in contact with legal counsel over the matter.
When CBC News requested a copy of that report through freedom of information legislation, IRAC responded by saying it could neither confirm nor deny the existence of the report.
If public disclosure surrounding land holdings and the application and approval process is lacking, Islanders will never know if enforcement is needed, or has been needed.— Green MLA Matt MacFarlane
Similarly, the 2020 report from an investigation into the Brendel Farms land transaction involving a member of the Irving family has also never been made public. P.E.I.'s privacy commissioner said in 2021 that the report could be released in response to a freedom of information request filed by CBC News — but that still hasn't happened, four years later.
The last time IRAC posted a public order involving an investigation under the Lands Protection Act was in 2014.
Green MLA Matt MacFarlane said the level of transparency with regard to the act has been reduced to the point "that decisions made within it will always have a cloud of suspicion hanging over them."
He added: "If public disclosure surrounding land holdings and the application and approval process is lacking, Islanders will never know if enforcement is needed, or has been needed."
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