Seniors organization faces receivership as group seeks life lease refunds
MELBOURNE: Once branding itself on its website as “Edmonton’s best-kept seniors housing secret,” the Lions Village of Greater Edmonton Society is the subject of a lawsuit that claims it owes residents and their families more than $1 million, court documents say.
A charitable organization that once branded itself as “Edmonton’s best-kept seniors housing secret” is now being forced to sell some of its assets.
On Tuesday, a Court of King’s Bench judge signed off on the Lions Village of Greater Edmonton Society entering a partial receivership by handing over its Castle Downs location to receiver BDO Canada Limited who will also manage and protect its trust.
The decision comes after current and former residents and their beneficiaries requested the Lions Village be placed in receivership, alleging in a lawsuit the organization is unable to pay back more than $1 million in life lease money owed to residents.
Lions Village has three residential buildings: one in south Edmonton, one just west of downtown and one in the northwest community of Castle Downs.
The proposal to only liquidate the one location was the result of a negotiation between lawyers from both sides and brought forward to the justice on Tuesday. The sale of the building is intended to allow the society to pay its creditors and outstanding life lease refunds.
According to an affidavit filed by Carla Tremblay on July 6, residents were told at Lions Village Board meetings in March that more than 12 former leaseholders were owed approximately $1.2 million and the society had no ability to pay.
The affidavit claims that in that meeting, residents were also told that life lease deposits were not held in trust, but used to construct the second phase of the Castle Downs location. Seniors were promised that the society would implement a trust and mortgage structure, the group’s legal brief and attached loan agreements say.
A life lease is a model of seniors housing where residents pay a lump sum for the right to occupy a unit, plus monthly operating costs. When they die or move out, the initial investment is returned, minus a percentage that the housing operator uses to refurbish the unit.
The Lions Village website claimed to give back 94 per cent of the original payment to residents upon their departure. Those claims plus a quote calling the life lease concept “too good to be true” and all information about life leases have been removed from its website in the last week.
The society declined to comment while the matter is before the courts. Its lawyer Dana Nowak said on Tuesday that Lions Village does dispute some of the claims made in the lawsuit, but wanted to instead focus on a good-faith negotiation.
“The village will continue to serve its residents, protect their well-being, support their independence and ensure they are treated with fairness and compassion.”
Nowak added that residents in the Castle Downs location won’t necessarily have to move out, but may be able to instead rent their unit once acquired by another company.
‘I am absolutely appalled’
Tremblay was one of four to file an affidavit. In it, she wrote that her mother Edith Greene had been living in the Lions Village Railtown location. She died on July 27, 2025.
Tremblay’s affidavit said that she is still trying to recover a refund of her mother’s life lease. She’s looking to now fully recoup the $164,500 that she said her mother paid, plus interest.
“All of these people moved in there believing this was a safe place to be,” Tremblay said at Tuesday’s court appearance. “I am absolutely appalled at how Lions Village has treated its residents.”
It’s not the first case of life lease housing for seniors coming under scrutiny. At the end of 2024, more than 200 Albertans were waiting to get life lease refunds from a number of Christenson Group of Companies retirement homes.
New provincial rules aimed at protecting life lease holders were introduced in late 2024. Those set a nine per cent annual interest rate on life lease entry fees that aren’t repaid within six months, with Alberta housing operators required to pay accrued interest each month.
Tremblay’s affidavit said that her mother’s unit was vacated in October and that she has received no interest payments.
Lions International affiliation
Current resident Gisele LeBlanc wrote in her affidavit that 30 years of savings went into her life lease.
“The financial condition of Lions Village is extremely disturbing and I am fearful of my investment,” she wrote.
LeBlanc said she and other life lease holders thought an affiliation with Lions Club International, a service organization claiming to have more than 1.4 million members, gave the Edmonton seniors facilities an air of authority. The Lions Village website includes images that feature the international group’s logo.
Lions Club spokesperson Shauna Schuda said in a statement that the Edmonton society had permission to use Lions intellectual property but it is an independent organization.
“Lions International does not manage or oversee the operations or finances of independent foundations or individual Lions clubs.”