A B.C. Supreme Court Justice has ruled in favour of Habitat for Humanity Canada in its bid to take possession of the assets owned by its former Prince George affiliate.
In a reasons for judgment issued Wednesday, Justice Neena Sharma ordered Hearts and Hands for Homes Society to transfer to Habitat Canada seven properties and six mortgages under its name, including the Prince George ReStore, as well as all of the store's possessions, including build-site tools and equipment.
Hearts and Hands must also hand over donors' lists and all donations it's collected and any other asset that is held by Hearts and Hands, "even if held in trust for Habitat Canada."
Sharma also gave Hearts and Hands 30 days to provide Habitat Canada an accounting of all its assets and liabilities as of Oct. 1, 2013, the day Hearts and Hands was disaffiliated. The local group changed its name slightly more than three weeks later.
A month after the disaffiliation, Habitat Canada filed a notice of claim seeking Hearts and Hands' assets and outlining a falling out that dated back to September 2012 when the national organization said it uncovered a "multitude of problems and issues" while conducting a routine assessment of the Prince George group.
They included a "number of conflicts of interest" related to the board of directors, "a serious human resources issue in the management of the Prince George ReStore" and a failure to meet 34 of the 56 standards affiliates are required to meet.
By January 2013, the ReStore manager had been let go and the substance of the conflicts within the board had been addressed.
"However, Hearts and Hands had made little progress in addressing the deficiencies in the standards," according to the notice of claim.
In April, a mediation was held but, according to the claim, the board "did not demonstrate that it understood and accepted its responsibility" to meet its legal obligations to Habitat Canada and in May, Hearts and Hands was put on a three-month probation.
In July, an independent third party retained to assess Hearts and Hands reported back that little or no progress had been made. In September, Habitat Canada representatives flew to Prince George to reassess the issues and review the local society's books and records.
"The Prince George board was either not willing or able to muster a meeting during that period, and did not provide Habitat Canada access to Hearts and Hands books and records," the claim says.
In a teleconference later the same month, "no commitment was made by Hearts and Hands to attempt to address the issues," and three days later, Habitat Canada's national board passed a two-thirds vote to disaffiliate Hearts and Hands.
Hearts and Hands soon filed a counterclaim and later accused Habitat Canada of undertaking disaffiliation as a disguised attempt to amalgamate some affiliates. The allegation was based on a proposal raised at a national conference to amalgamate Prince George with the Kamloops and Kelowna affiliates.
When Prince George resisted, Habitat Canada responded with a "fault finding mission, as opposed to a fact finding one" to force on the local group what they were unwilling to do by agreement.
But Sharma found Habitat Canada never endorsed the amalgamation plan but rather were only put to the affiliates for comment and was not included in a subsequent strategic plan. Sharma went on to say the accusation to be "highly inappropriate; it should not have been made on such flimsy grounds."
The non-profit Habitat movement provides housing, built by volunteers, to low-income families. Habitat Prince George was incorporated in 2001 and received charitable status from Canada Revenue Agency eight months later. That status was carried over to Hearts and Homes.
Hearts and Hands executive director Jo-Ann Pickering said Wednesday she wanted to meet with HHH's lawyer before commenting on the outcome. Habitat Canada said it will provide comment today.
