CONTRIBUTORS ANNOYED AT SALE
Planned addiction-treatment centre is quietly killed following fundraising campaign
It was a bold plan backed by some of Alberta’s most noteworthy public figures and philanthropists — both with their time and their wallets.
For more than 40 years, Recovery Acres Society, a registered charity in the city, has helped some 13,000 people in their battle to overcome addiction. But facing high demand and a space crunch in an aging 1835 House facility in Marda Loop, the agency embarked on an ambitious fundraising campaign for a new facility in 2013, on a prime piece of land it had previously acquired for the project in Tuxedo Park.
In January, Recovery Acres conditionally sold the 17,000-squarefoot lot on Centre Street N. at 29th Avenue, the final nail in the coffin for an initiative once dubbed Breaking New Ground, a move that surprised some of its erstwhile supporters who say they were never advised the $14-million project was in jeopardy.
Olympic gold medallist Jamie Salé was named honorary co-chair of the fundraising campaign, a cause close to the heart of the figure skater, who had watched a family member graduate from the Recovery Acres program. She and her husband, former Edmonton Oiler Craig Simpson, backed the initiative both financially and through advocacy.
After it appeared Breaking New Ground was sliding off the rails, Salé demanded her name be removed from anything to do with the project.
“I’m devastated. I can’t believe it,” she told Postmedia.
“The selling point wasn’t ‘Can you make a donation to help men and women in the current facility?’ You owe all the donors an explanation.”
Just a few years ago, the plan looked like a surefire success.
So promising was its outlook and mission that many of Calgary’s most well-heeled residents and charitable foundations put their signatures on cheques for the facility, a list that includes the Calgary Flames Foundation, the Alvin and Mona Libin Foundation, the David and Leslie Bissett Fund, the Calgary Foundation, ECCO Recycling & Energy Corp. and others.
Meanwhile, celebrity supporters such as Flames legend Lanny McDonald, who along with Salé was named honorary campaign co-chair, former Flames trainer Bearcat Murray and Olympian Mark Tewksbury also lent public support and advocacy to the project.
Part of the sales pitch was the expansion of Recovery Acres’ fledgling women’s program, which would be moved to the larger former facility as the new building expanded treatment space for men enrolled in the program.
According to documents obtained by Postmedia, Recovery Acres claimed that by 2016, more than $2.2 million had been raised and spent on the proposed facility, the bulk of which went to the $1.4-million cost of acquiring the land.
In its original business plan for Breaking New Ground, the charity proposed drumming up $5.5 million in community donations, while offering naming rights at the facility for another $1.5 million. The remaining $7 million would come from the province, something facility administrators were confident would come through given the attractiveness of a shovel-ready project that would amount to a quick win.
Gerry Melsted, executive director of Recovery Acres, said by 2016 it became clear the province’s priorities had shifted away from residential addiction-treatment centres, and despite reassuring words from provincial officials it seemed increasingly unlikely they would ultimately land the desperately-needed government funding for the project.
“In the business plan, it was very clearly outlined that the project was not viable without big investment from Alberta Health,” he said. “We ran out of runway to the extent we were no longer getting messages that indicated this was a good project.”
Fearing the project would die on the vine, in June 2016 Recovery Acres changed course, pitching the province on the need for a new stand-alone treatment facility for women, a severely underserved demographic in Calgary. The streamlined project reduced the price tag to $10 million and again highlighted the need for provincial funding.
Just a few months later, the charity unveiled its CARE (Cooccurring Addiction Recovery Essential) for Women office next door to the aging 1835 House, realizing hopes for provincial funding seemed bleak. Last March, officials with Recovery Acres threw in the towel in their quest for provincial funding.
“It seems that our funding request from Alberta Health for construction of a new facility for use as a residential treatment facility for women is not viable in the near future,” Melsted wrote in an email to an official with Alberta Health on March 29.
That email was sent just two days after the province announced $7 million in funding to build a 46bed post-treatment housing addition for Fresh Start Recovery Centre, which offers similar services to Recovery Acres. However, the investment came from the province’s Housing Ministry, not the Health Ministry, responsible for the provision of treatment beds as opposed to post-program lodging.
Melsted insists the timing of the email is a coincidence, but they realized that to move forward the agency had to sell the Tuxedo Park parcel of land that was quickly becoming a pricey albatross due to ongoing property tax payments and servicing costs that were pushing the charity deeper into red ink.
“We couldn’t keep feeding this beast when we could retrieve some money from the land and pursue expansion in a less aggressive way,” said Melsted, who notes the land was conditionally sold for $2.1 million, but the deal isn’t set to close until the end of March.
“After 10 years of waiting for the government, it wasn’t going to happen.”
In a statement, associate minister of health Brandy Payne, who met several times with Recovery Acres officials about the proposal, said despite the fact the province wasn’t able to support its capital campaign, they provide ongoing funding for both operations and upgrades.
“While we’re not able to provide capital funding for a new build by Recovery Acres, I should note we do support the organization and its clients by providing operational dollars for treatment,” she said.
“The province also provided funding for upgrades and renovations to its existing treatment centre.”
Melsted said an update about the project’s fate was sent to donors and stakeholders last June, but acknowledges not everyone who backed the cause may have received the message.
Calgary philanthropist Irene Pfeiffer, a member of the Order of Canada and a longtime volunteer with the Mustard Seed Street Ministry, said she didn’t learn about the land sale until after the fact, even though she both donated to the project and advocated on its behalf.
“It’s aggravating when you’re asked to contribute to something and believe in the cause. It would be nice if the organization came back to us and told us,” she said.
“It’s a cause that I have a passion for. It really disturbs me when you hear about it second-hand.”
One of the project’s major donors, the Calgary Homeless Foundation, ponied up $383,807 to help with land acquisition in 2011, and Melsted said they were advised of the project’s demise as a courtesy.
In a statement, CHF said after learning the Breaking New Ground project was no longer viable, it asked for its donation to be returned.
“As the project has not been completed we have requested that the funds be refunded, according to the terms of our grant agreement,” the non-profit said in a statement.
Rob Laird was sought out by Recovery Acres officials in 2013 to be director of fund development for the charity, and most importantly for its signature project.
By 2016, when he saw the project was on shaky ground, he had an acrimonious split with the charity, charging that spiralling debt and poor management were behind its demise. “I believed it was going to be OK until they started looking for money to cover bad debt,” Laird said. “We had lots of people who saw value in this project and I think perhaps they gave up too easily and too quickly. It’s a shame because a lot of people put a lot of hard work into it.”
Melsted acknowledged the society’s debt load had risen to some $350,000 since the first inklings of Breaking New Ground in 2007, as well as admitting that separate accounts were not created for the capital campaign and its ongoing operations budget, a common practice in charitable campaigns.
However, he said everything was done properly and noted that, ultimately, the CARE program was a decent outcome for the failed campaign.
“The money was not wasted. It was not as grandiose a plan, but we managed to get a very effective program off the ground in a beautiful facility,” Melsted said.
“It’s been a difficult year or so we’ve come through and we found a suitable solution. We still recognize there is a need to provide residential service ... we just don’t know how to do it at this stage.”
It’s a cause that I have a passion for. It really disturbs me when you hear about it second-hand.