BG Wealth Group & Small Town Rentals: The Owen Sound Current with CBC Radio's Matt Allen
Miranda Miller, Editor of The Owen Sound Current, joins CBC Radio host Matt Allen for his Small Town Press segment to discuss BG Wealth Group's investment portfolio in Owen Sound.
Miranda Miller, Editor of The Owen Sound Current, spoke with Matt Allen of CBC Radio’s Afternoon Drive for his ‘Small Town Press’ segment on January 9, 2025. The topic of discussion: BG Wealth Group, a Toronto investment firm that owes the community over a quarter of a million dollars in unpaid taxes.
Listen to the full 8-minute clip on CBC’s website on demand:
Other articles from The Owen Sound Current referenced in this episode include:
Transcript: Small Town Press - The Owen Sound Current, January 9, 2025
Matt Allen: “Well, this week for our Small Town Press segment, we're taking a journey to Owen Sound. That's where, earlier this week, independent journalist Miranda Miller broke some big news for the community on Substack. She discovered through an FOI request that a private equity group out of Toronto now owes the small city over a quarter of a million dollars in unpaid taxes.
It's all tied up in five mixed-use properties that, at one point, promised high returns for its local investors. Three of those properties were seized and ordered into receivership last November.
Miranda Miller, with The Owen Sound Current, joins us now to break down what she uncovered and what she's hearing from those involved. Hi, Miranda.”
Miranda Miller: “Hi, thank you.”
Matt Allen: “So, paint the picture of the situation for us here. You've done a lot of work, a lot of reporting, research… these property investors—when they came into Owen Sound, what was their goal at that time?”
Miranda Miller: “Sure. So, I mean, there's still a lot we don't know, but we do know that they came to town in 2020—maybe late night 2019, early 2020—with this promise that they were going to buy up these high-profile buildings, mixed residential and commercial, and that they had investors lined up who wanted to pour money into improving them.
One in particular is over 100 years old—The Coach Inn, or the Seldon House—and it has 40 residential units there. They were going to convert that to a hotel. So, I mean, there were a lot of big promises right off the hop as they moved in and sort of took over these buildings.
Matt Allen: “Okay, and when did it become apparent that there was something maybe suspicious going on or fishy that needed some investigation?”
Miranda Miller: “Well, right from the start, I would say people had a lot of serious questions when they were promising 14 to 16% returns. That's concerning, especially for the tenants in our town, which is—you know, we serve a large economically depressed area; the average household income is lower than normal. So it was concerning right from the start.
But in January this year, this past year, 2024—a commercial tenant in one of the buildings came to me and said, ‘I've just been notified that the landlord hasn't paid their taxes, and within one year, my building might be sold.’ That creates a lot of uncertainty. They, you know, they were pretty concerned. And I would say that commercial landlords are, or sorry, commercial tenants, they're at great risk, too, when a property changes hands, they need to negotiate a new lease. You know, their rent could go up a lot.
That was really the first clue that, like… if they're making 14 to 16% returns, and we look at their social media and their website, and they're still, you know, enticing investors in, and everything is booming, why aren't you paying your taxes?”
Matt Allen: “Yeah, absolutely. So with this as some context, you gained access? You filed freedom of information requests, and what did you learn from those documents?”
Miranda Miller: “So, that didn't actually come until later. I kind of thought, well, let's see how this shakes out. Maybe it's just, you know, a misunderstanding. But by summer, a man who had read my first article…
I wrote an article February about what happens when large landlords fail. So let's take a look at, you know, the risk to tenants, commercial and residential alike when this happens. And let's talk about just the commodification of housing in general, and how people have become so vulnerable.
I actually referred to a CBC article at the time. You had interviewed Mark Lee from the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, and he was talking about how we need more speed bumps around investor behaviour. And so, we were seeing this play out at the local level, where people are suddenly very vulnerable.
But an investor reached out to me in the summer and said, ‘You know, I read your article from February, and I was shocked. I didn't realize this was happening, that the taxes weren't paid.’ That really opened the floodgate. I learned from that person that there was a group, that it was around 20 people at the time, I believe, but there’s now over 50 investors who weren't getting paid, either.
So, they had been promised a monthly return. Those returns stopped in 2023 and then when they tried to recoup their investments, they were given all kinds of excuses as to why that can't happen.”
Matt Allen: “How much does the company owe in terms of back taxes?”
Miranda Miller: “As of October 10, which is when we filed the freedom of info request, it was $284,000—in that neighbourhood.
Matt Allen: “And this is to the City of Owen Sound?
Miranda Miller: “Yes. We then found out—after I published the article about the back taxes, I was sent a court judgment from November 2024 and we found that three of the properties had been seized in November by a creditor there. There was over $8 million owing. (Editor’s Note: We heard from the receivership firm after this interview that although the statement of claim was for over $8 million, the actual amount owed to KCU by BG Wealth was over $2.8 million.)
So we have a lot of queries out. We’re looking a lot of information, trying to understand why those properties were leveraged in mortgages and loans in the first place, when this investor group believed that they were fully funding them. This was their money that had already bought the buildings outright, and they should have been making returns. So there's a lot of questions here.”
Matt Allen: “Absolutely. Now, the company behind this, who is behind the purchases... BG Wealth Group. Can you tell us about them and the people involved?”
Miranda Miller: “I can tell you what we've been able to confirm. Craig Dunkerley and Claudia Harvey were partners in BG Wealth Group. They were also involved in a company called Blackthorn Investments. They have had various companies over the years.
At one point, Claudia did a deal on Dragon's Den, I believe it was, with Kevin O'Leary. And at that point they were selling gardening gloves. They did end up actually bankrupting that business, Dig It Apparel, last April, and there, there was something like $6 million in unsecured creditor debt.
What we know about them seems like maybe they shouldn't be taking people's money and promising to, you know, give them these massive returns.
They haven't responded to my requests for interview. We haven't been able to get much out of them directly. And the investors that I’ve spoken to say that they aren't responsive to their repeated requests to find out what's happening with their money.”
Matt Allen: “What are you hearing, in terms of… from the folks who might be affected by this, if it would have been successful, the tenants and the folks who depend on these buildings?”
Miranda Miller: “I mean, people are afraid. They're afraid to speak out, because we have a really tight housing market here, and you might not be able to find a place. So you know, if they're priced out or if they're asked to leave, if they're renovicted... It's really difficult right now to find an affordable rental in Owen Sound; difficult to the point that our homeless population has exploded over the last few years. So it's a scary time for people.
I think we need legislative change at every level, because the safety net is gone. So people really have no option when something like this happens to them, and we've already seen the impact when BG Wealth Group came to town and started publishing their case studies. You know, we doubled rents in this building, and over here we increased from $40,000 a year to $200,000 a year.
There’s a very real impact on the people who are on the wrong end of that deal. Some of those people have had to find other homes. I mean, we did see renovictions happen in this case. They didn't deliver on the promise of improving the Coach Inn and converting that to a hotel—they didn't even improve the living conditions there. So people are frustrated. I've heard that they don't even know who to talk to right now. They don't know who's in control of the building.
I'm waiting to hear back from the bankruptcy receiver on the three buildings that were seized in November. So it's a lot of uncertainty and a lot of fear for the people who have been put through this experience.
Matt Allen: “It’s a very important story, especially at this time. Miranda, it has been a pleasure. Really good work on this, and we'll be in touch for more when the updates come. Thank you so much.”
Miranda Miller: “Thank you.”
Matt Allen: “That is Miranda Miller. She is an independent journalist and the Editor of The Owen Sound Current.”