By Kathy Bevan
Stew Fettes
Stew Fettes is a man on a mission. The Saskatchewan sales rep is mad as heck about having to collect additional confidential information about his clients’ transactions, in order to comply with FINTRAC requirements. Now, he’s making it clear that he’s not going to take it anymore – he’s started a petition to lobby Ottawa and, out of Regina’s 280 Realtors, he’s already garnered 70 signatures. He’s posted his petition online to gather support as well.
“You know when something’s wrong, and this legislation is very, very wrong. Everybody who comes to me with a sale or a listing, they all ask me, ‘Can I sign your petition Stew?’” says Fettes. “What’s really got me bothered and upset here is that they made it mandatory and deputized us pretty much, with ferocious fines, and that’s not right. “
FINTRAC (the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre) is the financial unit responsible for ensuring compliance to the federal Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act. Effective June 2008, Bill C-25 amended the Act to require, among other things, that real agents and brokers had to collect and verify increased personal information about their buyers and sellers, securely store it for five years, and make it accessible to FINTRAC. Failure to meet record-keeping requirements can mean fines of up to $500,000 and/or five years’ imprisonment.
CREA continues to lobby the government to ease some of the requirements; Fettes wants to go one step further. Stating that Realtors are being forced “to do police work” for the government, his petition calls for the suspension of parts of Bill C-25 and the re-opening of government negotiations with CREA, “to find a solution that is mutually beneficial to CREA, the Minister of Finance, and the Government of Canada.”
Fettes is concerned that there is no guarantee that large amounts of confidential client information can be safeguarded by real estate salespeople. “Who’s going to protect all this information? I’m not comfortable doing that,” Fettes says. He concedes that he is complying by filling out FINTRAC reporting forms, because “I’d be fired if I didn’t.” However, he says he’s doing so “very, very reluctantly” and adds, “When my clients are finished signing those forms, I’m asking them to sign my petition.”
When the Regina Leader-Post reported on Fettes’ concerns, the Association of Regina Realtors (ARR) responded in a Letter to the Editor. ARR executive officer Gord Archibald noted that real estate brokerages had been keeping confidential information secure under federal privacy law since 2004.
“Realtors in Saskatchewan are well versed in these requirements and take their obligations under anti-terrorist, money laundering and privacy legislation seriously,” wrote Archibald.
The provincial Association of Saskatchewan Realtors (ASR) also emphasizes that confidential consumer information is safe with Realtors and brokerages. Bill Madder, ASR executive officer, says by and large the association’s members are working well with the anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist funding regulations and understand the need for proper client identification.
“We would like to see some fine-tuning, but we’re certainly not opposed to the intent of the regulations,” Madder says. “Some unusual transactions that don’t occur too many times – things like when the parties are not present or out of the country – are still some finer points we know CREA is currently negotiating with FINTRAC.”
Meanwhile, Fettes continues to steadily gather signatures on his petition, in person and via his website (www.thecanadatoday.com) and he’s prepared to keep at it for as long as it takes.
“I’ll just keep moving it forward, tightening it up and turning up the thermostat on the politicians,” says Fettes, who expects it may take a year before he can present his petition to Ottawa. “This thing is going to be a marathon, but when I start something I never quit.”
