Let’s hope Ian is right. Let’s hope this investigation is more thorough and that the results are shared with the folks who are paying for it- Island tax payers.
This Latest IRAC Investigation Will Be Different
Ian Petrie, July 2025
A lot has changed since 2018, the last time the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission was tasked with investigating the land holdings of Buddhist monasteries on PEI: the Great Wisdom Buddhist Institute (GWBI) and the Great Wisdom Buddhist Institute Society (GEBIS). In early February Housing, Land and Communities Minister Steven Myers directed IRAC to re-investigate. “What it comes down to — and this is
the concern that you will hear around the area (Three Rivers) — is the link[s], and who is connected to who, and are all the connections together one entity and are they over their land holdings? I think that’s what this investigation is going to find out.”
Despite several demands over the years, including from a legislative committee and Minister Myers, IRAC has never released the 2018 investigation. In fact it may not be what’s in the 2018 investigation that’s prevented it from becoming public, but what isn’t. I’ve been told several times over the years that the 2018 investigation wasn’t as thorough as it could have been. The Liberal government of the day refused to supply sufficient funding for outside legal help. At the same time the monasteries took the advice of their lawyers and did little to co-operate. The government back then remained convinced that the
economic activity generated by the monasteries was too important to risk digging too hard. That’s not the situation today.
From what Minister Myers has said publicly this investigation will be much more rigorous. I did ask IRAC if outside legal/investigative resources are being used and was only told that the investigation is ongoing. Some good reporting by Josh Lewis in the Eastern Graphic provided more detail from Minister Myers: The department is willing to provide whatever funds are required to ensure the robustness of the investigation, he said, although the cost recovery comes afterward. If the probe finds violations of the LPA, the costs would be recovered from
the Buddhist groups being scrutinized, said government spokesperson Nicole Yeba. If no violation is found, the department will provide the funds.
Another important difference this time? GEBIS and GWBI are publicly saying they welcome this investigation and will fully cooperate. The Buddhist nuns have provided an on-line question and answer format on many topics including land ownership, where donations come from, alleged links to the Chinese Communist Party, how their buildings are taxed by the province, whether nuns own land, and more (
https://bit.ly/3Ik3JHL ).
There’s certainly nothing I could write, the nuns could put online, or IRAC could report, that will alter what some Islanders are convinced of: that PEI’s land base is under threat from deep pockets of Asian money, and even worse the Tibetan Buddhist monasteries are under the thumb of the Chinese Communist Party. For others it’s useful to look at the pattern of land purchases by those closely associated with the monasteries, including the lay followers of their Buddhist practices. Most of the land buying took place almost a decade ago around the monasteries just after they were built. Since then IRAC has refused some purchases and both GEBIS and GWBI
have pleaded with their followers to not purchase more land.
As Minister Myers said IRAC has a challenging job. It must determine if land owned by the commercial operations controlled by the Buddhists, Moonlight International, Lessen, Grain Essence; land purchased by some nuns and monks and Bliss and Wisdom leadership, and most importantly land bought by the lay followers who are here because of the monasteries, should be considered parts of one entity. As charities and non-profits these organizations don’t have the traditional shareholder structure of corporations so linking them together is more difficult. This is in my mind the most challenging part of the
investigation.
The conclusions must be legally sound and provide guidance for how other large, well financed farm corporations with new generations coming of age (think the Irvings and Vanco for example) are judged.
Each decade since the 1970’s has brought fresh groups of people to PEI with money in their pockets looking for land: the back to the landers(guilty here), the Irvings, Americans looking for waterfront properties, Dutch farmers, well-heeled PNP invitees from China and elsewhere, the Amish, and now a wealthy Taiwanese Buddhist organization. Each group looking for their slice of PEI, bidding up the price of land as they go, creating economic benefits for those Islanders doing the selling and challenging the rest of us to uphold the intent and values developed by Angus MacLean in the Lands Protection Act more than 40 years ago.