A comment made during a recent Committee of the Whole meeting has raised questions about a much larger issue: who actually owns The Confluence, the 80-unit affordable housing development at 346 Campbell Avenue on Kamloops' North Shore?
During the May 28 Committee of the Whole meeting, Councillor Nancy Bepple thanked staff and the previous council while discussing the recent opening of The Confluence.
"The back half of the property, we sold it to BC Housing," Bepple said while referencing the previous council's purchase of the former Northbridge Hotel on Tranquille Road and the Campbell Avenue property behind it.
At first glance, the statement may appear unremarkable. For years, public statements, media reports, and City documents have described BC Housing as the purchaser or owner of the Campbell Avenue property.
A review of City records, however, reveals a more complicated story.
Council Approved a Sale to BC Housing
In September 2021, the City publicly disclosed a decision made during a closed Council meeting authorizing the sale of 346 Campbell Avenue to the Provincial Rental Housing Corporation, BC Housing's legal housing provider.
The disclosure stated:
"Council authorize the sale of Lot A, Plan 39602 (346 Campbell Avenue), to the Provincial Rental Housing Corporation for $3.81 million."
That decision established what would become a consistent narrative surrounding the project.
Staff Told Council BC Housing Would Own the Development
When Council considered Housing Agreement Bylaw No. 5-3-55 and the associated development permit for the project in February 2023, staff reports repeatedly described Provincial Rental Housing Corporation as the future owner.
The administrative report stated:
"The project will be owned and subsidized by Provincial Rental Housing Corporation and managed by Ask Wellness."
Later in the same report, staff again stated:
"The land and building will be owned by Provincial Rental Housing Corporation and managed by Ask Wellness through an operator agreement."
The Housing Agreement attached to the report identified Provincial Rental Housing Corporation as "the Owner" and described it as the registered owner of the property.
Council subsequently approved the housing agreement and development permit on February 28, 2023.
Based on the public record available at the time, residents could reasonably conclude that BC Housing would own the property while ASK Wellness would manage and operate the building.
A Councillor Raised Questions During the Approval Process
The issue of ownership was not entirely absent from Council's discussions.
During consideration of the project, Councillor Katie Neustaeter questioned (3:01:30 mark) whether ASK Wellness was expected to purchase the land and receive a forgivable mortgage.
Staff responded that their understanding was that BC Housing would own the property.
The discussion did not result in any amendments to the report or housing agreement.
Looking back, that exchange appears noteworthy because it raised questions about the ownership structure before Council approved the project.
The Transfer Documents Tell a Different Story
While City reports and bylaws identified Provincial Rental Housing Corporation as the owner, the land transfer documents tell a different story.
A Statement of Adjustments prepared for the transaction identifies ASK Wellness Society as the buyer of 346 Campbell Avenue for $3,812,179.
The registered transfer document similarly identifies ASK Wellness Society as the transferee receiving title to the property from the City of Kamloops.
Those documents appear inconsistent with the ownership structure described in the City's 2023 reports and housing agreement.
ASK Wellness also acknowledged its role as purchaser in an introduction to The Confluence published on its website, stating that it was under contract to purchase the property from the City of Kamloops in partnership with BC Housing.
Public Communications Continued to Blur Ownership
The ownership question didn't become clearer after the transfer.
City news releases described BC Housing as the purchaser, and several media reports referred to BC Housing purchasing the property.
Other reports described ASK Wellness as the operator of the building while omitting ownership details altogether.
More recently, BC Housing's announcement celebrating the opening of Confluence identified ASK Wellness as the owner and operator of the development.
As a result, the public record contains multiple and sometimes conflicting descriptions of who owns the project.
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Why This Matters
This article is not about whether The Confluence should have been built. The project now provides 80 affordable homes on the North Shore and has been widely celebrated as a housing success.
The issue raised by the public record is different. Official reports presented to Council, a housing agreement approved by Council, land transfer documents, media reports, and recent comments made during an open meeting do not appear to describe the same ownership structure.
When public assets are transferred and public funds are invested, residents should be able to determine who owns the resulting asset without having to reconcile conflicting records themselves.
Council approved a project described in official City documents as being owned by Provincial Rental Housing Corporation. The registered transfer documents show ASK Wellness Society acquiring the property. Three years later, a sitting councillor publicly stated that the City sold the property to BC Housing, and no correction or clarification was offered during the meeting.
Whether the ownership structure changed during the development process, whether City documents were inaccurate, or whether multiple parties simply described the arrangement differently remains unclear from the public record.
What is clear is that City reports, bylaws, housing agreements, transfer documents, media coverage, and recent public statements do not tell the same story about who owns one of Kamloops' most significant affordable housing developments.
For a project involving millions of dollars in public assets and public funding, residents should not have to piece together the ownership structure from conflicting documents.
Disclosure
This article is based on publicly available City of Kamloops records, Council agendas and minutes, housing agreements, land transfer documents, financial statements, media reports, and public statements made during open Council meetings. The author has attempted to accurately summarize those records and documents.
This article does not allege wrongdoing by any individual or organization. Questions raised regarding ownership, governance, and public disclosure are based on apparent inconsistencies identified within the public record. Readers are encouraged to review the referenced documents and draw their own conclusions.
It definitely appears that something very shady went on here. Perhaps BC housing decided to turn this property over to ASK as hush money to keep him quiet regarding his opposition to the wet housing situations.
This is a real problem with the current municipal governments, lack of transparency, subterfuge and nepotism – they have a plan and we are not included. It must STOP – we cannot afford it. Ask wellness should be very ashamed, never mind these corrupt city slickers, I mean councilors! BUT we NOW know there appears to be no morals and zero accountability from these grifters, aka actors. Time to remove them and just say NO.