Located in Squamish, B.C., Quest University Canada (“Quest”) is one of the few private, secular universities in Canada.
Since opening in 2007, Quest has welcomed about 500 students annually from 40 countries around the world. For a pricey $35,000 per year, Quest offers an under-graduate education in Liberal Arts. In the Macleans Survey of Student Engagement, Quest has repeatedly come out on top. But now, Quest is in deep trouble.
In January of 2020, Quest went into creditor protection. At the end of October after months of trying to solve its financial woes, Quest's Board of Governors sought court approval to sell the entire university in large part so it can pay a $25 million loan to Vanchorverve Foundation (“Vanchorverve”), a registered charity run by Blake Bromley, a Vancouver lawyer.
According to agreements with Squamish (an MOU and a Covenant) more than 20 years ago, Quest should have benefitted from the development of 240 acres of land that was purchased for $1.7 million and re-zoned specifically for the university. That was Quest’s birthright but Quest didn't get it. Now, on that very same land there are 350 residential lots and homes worth nearly $400 million and yet Quest is in creditor protection, deprived of it birthright in terms of land and millions of dollars in tax-receipted donations.
Over the same years that amounts owing to The Bromley Charities have brought Quest to its knees, these same Bromley Charities and related entities have benefitted substantially from land sales, lease payments, the sale of a student residence, fees, commission, royalty income, naming rights to Quest, interest on loans, and more. On a gross basis, these benefits look to total well beyond $100 million over roughly 15 years.
Not only Quest didn’t receive the donations and economic benefits that were its due, but furthermore, Quest ended up saddled with high interest loans from a daisy chain of The Bromley Charities. First Global Charity Fund, then Foundation For Public Good, then CHIMP Foundation, and finally Vanchorverve. These charities were obligated to make gifts, not high interest loans. The loans were secured by a mortgage on Quest’s main campus. Since that mortgage is now in default, The Bromley Charities can now profit from Quest’s demise to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.
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