With the soon-to-be collapse of CREA as we once knew it, it may be time to turn to the people who actually licence and regulate Realtors in Canada, our provincial governments. The vast majority of real estate is done on the local or provincial level in its respective jurisdictions. CREA has been too far removed from its members for years and is seen as some lobbyist group in central Canada pretending to act in the best interests of its Realtors. We have all found out how untrue that is with the Competition Bureau recently turning CREA into a bunch of jelly beans, as was also the case with the FINTRAC legislation that broke every federal privacy law and infringed on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms of Canadians. The federal privacy commissioner and all provincial privacy commissioners openly stated their concerns.
The latest fear mongering and insulting the intelligence of home buyers and sellers with their goofy TV advertisement does little to help Realtors in my opinion, but rather degrades us as professional salespeople. It’s a very unprofessional TV ad that shows just how unskilled CREA has become.
It may well be time to build one solid organization in each province to replace CREA in its entirety, along with rolling the present city board offices and provincial board office all into one “super association office.”
This type of an association would be much closer to individual Realtors, easier to maintain, more receptive to our concerns, give us easy access to the provincial politicians who oversee our industry, and be far less costly than the $20 million we pay CREA every year, and get very little in return for our money. Realtors could insist that our provincial ministers carry our message of concerns to Ottawa on our behalf.
It is pretty evident that CREA is about to sell us all out. A strong provincial organization would be the best tool to block the interference from the multi-national organizations that are disrupting our industry presently, causing major confusion among home buyers and sellers.
Stew Fettes,
Century 21 Dome Realty,
Regina
