The Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA) won a bronze award from the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS) for its advocacy campaign to stop the spread of the municipal land transfer tax (MLTT) beyond Toronto. This is the second award won by OREA for this campaign. On May 4, OREA won an ACE award from the Toronto chapter of the Canadian Public Relations Society.
The campaign, “Say No to Another Home Owner Tax: Don’t Tax My Dream”, placed third in the Canadian Government Relations Campaign of the Year category at the CPRS and Global Alliance (GA) Awards Gala. This category is for campaigns or programs that effectively used public affairs to change public opinion and influence government policy. The event, which celebrates the best of Canadian and International communications, was part of the World Public Relations Forum, held in Toronto this year.
Ray Ferris, OREA president, accepts the CPRS award from Tracy Moore, media personality and host of the awards gala.
The goal of the campaign was to convince the provincial government not to allow the Municipal Land Transfer Tax to be levied by cities beyond Toronto and to raise awareness of the implications of another tax. The provincial government had indicated it would consider giving all Ontario municipalities the authority to levy the tax, which adds thousands of dollars to the cost of home buying.
The mass advocacy campaign – featuring a consumer website and video, a news media blitz, radio ads, social media, grassroots advocacy and a call to action – was launched over the past year. All of the efforts culminated in December 2015, when the provincial government announced publicly that it would not permit the expansion of the tax beyond Toronto. Staff at OREA worked with the government relations and public relations agency of Counsel Public Affairs and the marketing agency of Ryan Edwards Communications on the campaign.
“It is an honour for OREA to win this award and be recognized in front of our international colleagues,” says Ray Ferris, president of OREA. “This award winning campaign highlights the strength of the Realtor voice at Queen’s Park in stopping the spread of the MLTT.”
The ACE (Achieving Communications Excellence) Awards have celebrated Toronto’s public relations community for more than 20 years.
“This award belongs to Ontario home buyers, who will keep over $1 billion in their pockets annually as a result of the campaign,” says Ray Ferris, OREA president. “And this award wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work, dedication and commitment of OREA staff and the agencies who assembled and executed the Don’t Tax My Dream campaign on a very aggressive schedule.”
