Janice Myers has spent three years scrutinizing the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA)’s budget, finding $6 million in savings overall to keep things running and legal bills paid.
But for the next eight weeks, CREA’s CEO will be campaigning for an increase in Realtors’ annual financial commitments, as the trade organization feels the pressure of inflation and a declining membership.
At CREA’s annual general meeting on April 14, CREA will propose a two per cent annual cost-of-living adjustment to member dues beginning Jan. 1, 2027. The adjustment would apply until CREA’s board of directors deems it no longer necessary.
A motion will also be put forth for a two-year, $30-per-member annual special assessment (totaling $60). This would raise approximately $9 million to cover expected litigation costs over the next two years.
“We are being more prudent with the budget, and these are all things that are resonating well with members,” said Myers in an interview with Real Estate Magazine. “Everybody is experiencing this at the same time. Everyone has their cost of living that’s making it harder for boards to meet those needs. It’s a challenging time overall. Members are having issues with the market. All of that is feeding into this.”
Budgeting with a shrinking membership
Because membership dues of $310 have not increased since 2013, their real dollar value has eroded by roughly $104 per member when adjusted for inflation, said Myers.
For years, membership growth was sufficient to offset inflation. Since the membership peak between 2021 and 2023, of roughly 165,000 members, CREA’s base has steadily declined.
“This has had a significant impact on the budgets,” said Myers.
In 2024, CREA cut $3 million from the budget and tightened spending by another $1.2 million the following year. Another $1.7 million was cut for the 2026 budget, which is based on a projected membership level of 155,000 members, a six per cent decline from the peak.
“We really did cut across the organization,” she said, citing cost-cutting from board meetings, national ad campaigns, advocacy work, grants to boards and assocations and the elimination of a program that recruited international members.
$2-million litigation spend forecast for 2026
CREA’s Legal Defense Fund has now been depleted, and $2 million from operations has been used for ongoing legal defense, the association says.
CREA spent $4 million in 2024 and $1.8 million in 2025 on legal costs tied to Sunderland and McFall litigation and the Competition Bureau investigation, and the association is accounting for another $2 million in legal expenses this year, said Myers.
“Some of that will be somewhat offset by insurance coverage, but that will be maxed out,” she said.
The two $30 special assessments are being introduced to replenish the legal war chest. While a similar proposal for a $75 fee was rejected at the 2025 AGM, Myers is hopeful for a different result this year.
“Some of their concerns were ‘Maybe you could have been better prepared.’ But I don’t think anyone could have foresaw the steep increase we had in 2024,” she said. “At the end of the day, everyone sees the need. We have to defend how members get paid.”
CREA is also increasing new member fees and directing a portion of those fees to the legal fund, which is expected to generate about $2.4 million annually.
“Between that and the money we hope to raise from the special assessments, we are feeling confident in our ability to manage our legal expenses over the next couple of years,” said Myers.
Has CREA done enough?
Saskatchewan Realtors Association (SRA) CEO Chris Guérette said CREA can make an argument for taking accountability over the last year, citing moves like carving out Realtor.ca, and “looking inward” at expenses.
“I think the next question should be ‘Is that enough?’ and ultimately that’s what will be discussed,” said Guérette.
Guérette said she empathizes with CREA’s battle with inflation, and she anticipates eventually going to her own membership base for fee increases.
SRA’s board of directors hasn’t deliberated on the motions yet, but Guérette said the association will be transparent about its voting intentions.
“I think what’s really unfortunate is when we get to an annual general meeting and there’s a lot of secrecy and siloed conversations,” she said.
Other board and association representatives REM contacted either said they had not looked at the AGM information yet, or declined to comment.
Courtney Zwicker is a digital reporter and associate editor for REM. Based in Atlantic Canada, she has over a decade of experience covering daily business news.
Like all professional not for profit corporations, associations that represent professional members, CREA has retained monies from its past annual dues which presently is at or near $30M. Despite the law in Canada that no surplus funds are to be retained, CRA has not enforced this and associations of the same size and revenue/expense class of the type CREA is have routinely been able to keep sizeable surplus funds…retained earnings. Plus or minus the combined 2% dues increase and the two year special assessment represents about $10M of the CREA surplus.
CREA’s expenses brush up against about $60M seemingly. If it were to dissolve today, what exactly is the amount of money required to fulfill its obligations (staff termination costs, lease costs, and so forth). That should guide and inform as to its required retained earnings. I suspect that is not $30M. And in that context the first place funds should be drawn from is the surplus not the members.
As a member of CREA, individual REALTORS® do not have standing in voting on matters. While traditional for these types of organizations, not having agency in your own destiny, direct agency, is a serious problem. We do not get informed about the financial status, the business decisions of our directors, or strategic plans in the manner that respects that we are paying the costs, have the burden of the down sides of decisions and because it is a not for profit NO upsides returned to us. The only way the CREA can return funds is to whittle at its surpluses, the very surpluses that our dues against annual costs created.
Good news is CREA seems to have eroded about 30% of its surplus held in 2022 down to $30M from $43M. Then again, what was the business activity and how was it managed that actually required such dramatic use in 2023 and 2024? We do not have agency to ask, be present, critique, or vote on such matters, including electing the persons we individually but as a collective view as serving our individual interests.
CREA should have plenty of space to generate revenue of a kind that is different than dues. It has done great work, as the article identifies, to reduce expenses. That is welcomed news.
But overriding all of this is the notion that just because you call some of your surplus special things, does not erase that you have a significant surplus. And before we start to extract more funds from what is the most diminished market for real estate services AND THE INCOME to us non voting members, perhaps the better plan is to recognize this is a longer term matter and dues increases in lieu of reducing the surplus is not the fair answer.
BTW, if dues have not increased since 2013 and there is this significant erosion to the value of the available dues dollars, I think it said $104 per member, exactly where was the prudent financial planning in the last 13 years?
cameron.nolan raised an interesting aspect of CREA’s retained earnings. Non-profit organizations are not supposed to retain surplus funds, yet CREA is doing it, so it is likely that the Provincial and Local Boards are also doing it, and the federal government has not done anything about that. When was the last time CREA was audited for its finances? Is this information available anywhere to the public? If no audit has been done in the past, it may be time to require CREA to have its finances audited and be made available to the public. Hopefully, there are no surprises there like iPro and those brokerages charged by RECO.
Realtor.ca was privatized by CREA not long ago. Realtor.ca is a member of CREA. CREA should ask realtor.ca for a business (financial) donation. The advertisement revenue generated by realtor.ca could be used to help to pay the legal costs if CREA did not privatize realtor.ca. It was a bad decision to privatize Realtor.ca after all.
CREA needs to produce an audit report to justify the need to raise dues. Realtors should not just take the CREA leadership’s words and agree to increase dues. Based on recent events happening in the real estate sector, It is obvious that the CREA leadership’s poor judgements and decisions led to the current Sutherland and McFall litigation and Competition Bureau investigation. It all started with OWRP mandating all members to buy health insurance. OREA was able to “cross the line” leveraging on CREA’s Three-Way-Agreement. Moreover, CREA endorsed OREA’s action by introducing new rules to circumvent realtors from leaving OREA and use exclusive listing as an alternative to market listings. Realtors should demand CREA to rescind its recent policy / rule changes with respect to MLS and commission, and negotiate with the plaintiffs to have the legal cases dropped. The plaintiffs are realtors too and CREA is using realtors’ dues to fight realtors! CREA’s action is not supporting realtors. Paying more dues will only encourage more inappropriate actions from CREA. It appears that CREA’s working relationship with OREA is equivalent to the former RECO registrar’s working relationship with iPro. There needs to be accountability for what led to this legal mess. If my comments make sense, please reach out to the Federal MPPs and ask for help to reform the entire real estate business model, starting from the top level.
And more house of cards falling.
Another association with their hands out for bad spending and poor decisions.
Who’s next.
And as unusual looking to Realtors to bail them out.
More $$$$$ please.