By Sue Careless
A massive financial scandal is rocking the Anglican Church of Canada. How was a 9-million-dollar five-year lease signed without the knowledge of the denomination’s finance committee? How could something of this magnitude be transacted without proper authorization? Who actually had signing authority?
Secondly, can the lease be broken? Can the Anglican Church of Canada (ACoC) get out of it? Can it fiscally recover from this decision?
Currently the denomination has its offices, known as Church House, at 80 Hayden Street in Toronto. Rent there costs approximately $425,000 annually but is offset significantly by the rent paid by two other Anglican organizations: Alongside Hope and Anglican Foundation of Canada, which brings costs down to only about $250,000 annually.
However, the ACoC looked into moving Church House’s offices, staff and archives a nine-minute cycle away to 300 Bloor St. West. This would enable them to share office space with the United Church of Canada and the Presbyterian Church of Canada.
However, the annual rent at 300 Bloor is considerable. It amounts to $960,00 or possibly 1 million dollars and would be paid to the United Church as landlord. The lease was signed with them.
A further $3,980,000 is required to pay for certain leasehold improvements over the term of the first 5-year lease. This would be a one-time cost.
According to General Synod’s most recent Consolidated Statement of Operations: “This lease commences on June 1, 2026 and is a five-year term, with a default renewal term unless the Landlord is informed otherwise. The lease would be automatically renewed for another five-year term unless notice was given otherwise.”
Worse still, there would be no room for the current partners Alongside Hope and the Anglican Foundation. So the annual rental increase (setting aside the leasehold improvements) would be well over $710,00. The Council of General Synod (COGS) only learned of this unauthorized transaction three weeks before General Synod met in London, Ontario June 23-29.
On the second last day of Synod, June 28, Acting Primate Anne Germond set aside a 40-minute Committee of the Whole to discuss the matter. There was no formal debate but Chancellor for General Synod, Clare Burns, answered questions from the floor.
Various delegates asked: Why is the church both renting and owning offices in the most expensive city in the country? Could the massive and important archives be stored in a city with lower property value? Could all of Church House be moved to a cheaper city in Ontario or Canada? Would the current staff be willing to make such a move?
While having close ecumenical relations with the United Church and the Presbyterian Church is good, some delegates asked, “Do we not have a greater obligation to our Anglican partner organizations [Alongside Hope and Anglican Foundation?]” Alongside Hope is the new name for the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund.
Scott Brubacher, Executive Director of the Anglican Foundation, told Synod that both his organization and Alongside Hope had expressed interest in sharing space at 300 Bloor and would require two work stations. “We didn’t hear there was no space for us until it was made public. It was devastating for us.”
After hearing Brubacher’s emotional remarks, the Chancellor apologized immediately, “We’re very, very sorry about that.”
Other delegates asked who exactly made the decision and who signed the lease without the knowledge of the finance committee? “Who felt they had the liberty to do something of this magnitude?”
In the discussion no names were revealed.
Chancellor Burns said that a secular forensic team, Grant Thorton LLP, an accounting firm from outside the denomination, is investigating what happened and would file their report by the end of July.
At that time the newly-elected Primate Shane Parker along with the newly elected Council of General Synod, would study the report and then decide how to proceed.
Burns said the lease would not be legally enforceable if there was sufficient delay in construction.
She also said that although Amal Attia, Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer, Financial Management and Administration, had said earlier at Synod that “Our finances are upside down,” the Chancellor stressed that “The church is not insolvent.”
Burns also admitted that on learning of the unauthorized lease signing, “the senior officers of Council [COGS] “had had many sleepless nights.”
The Chancellor said that while the Hayden St. space has been on the market, “no offers capable of acceptance” have been made.
To put the financial scandal in context, Bp. Annie Ittoshat of the Diocese of the Arctic said that she oversaw 15 remote communities in northern Quebec which had only four priests. There, a large box of Tide laundry detergent costs $120. “The money [being discussed] can go so much further in my area.”
One delegate said he hoped the denomination had an “errors and omissions insurance” and if it did, said it should be increased.
Once the finance committee learned of the unauthorized transaction, they removed their approval of the 2 million grant that had been earmarked for "enacting" some governance proposals outlined in the Pathways Commission.
A delegate from Diocese of Montreal said since the landlord of 300 Bloor Street is the United Church of Canada, she hoped they would be open to “re-evaluating” the lease agreement and a “relational solution” would be found.
Primate-elect Parker told the delegates that for a decade, first as dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Ottawa, and then as bishop of Ottawa, he had overseen “major multiple leases…. These are not new to me. I’m not queasy.” He was confident that after the forensics report is released and wisely acted upon, “our beloved national Anglican Church of Canada will be placed in a good place.” TAP
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A massive financial scandal is rocking the Anglican Church of Canada. How was a 9-million-dollar five-year lease signed without the knowledge of the denomination’s finance committee? How could something of this magnitude be transacted without proper authorization? Who actually had signing authority?
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