Inside Queen's Park
OREA has identified three priorities issues the association will be focusing its efforts on at Queen’s Park during the upcoming session of parliament.
First and foremost, OREA will continue to work with the government to amend REBBA, 2002 to allow real estate salespeople to incorporate. Notably, OREA has written to the new Minister of Consumer Services (responsible for REBBA, 2002) requesting a meeting to discuss personal real estate corporations (PRECs) and other REBBA related issues.
While OREA has made some progress on PRECs, the new government has many priorities on the legislative agenda including their campaign commitments, so immediate action is not expected.
OREA’s proposal to amend the Assessment Act, 2001 to create a new tax class for brownfield properties “under remediation” will also be a focus of the association’s lobbying activities.
The proposal continues to garner support from a number of different industry groups. OREA’s strategy on this issue is to build a coalition of interested stakeholders who will add their collective voice in support of our brownfields proposal. Most recently, OREA acquired the support of the Ontario Home Builders’ Association and the Northern Ontario Association of Municipalities (NOMA). In addition, the Building Managers Association of Ontario (BOMA) is in the process of reviewing the proposal as is the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO).
Finally, OREA will continue to lobby in favor the creation of a registry of former marijuana grow operations and clandestine laboratories. Prior to the provincial election, the Provincial Advisory Group (PAG) on Marijuana Grow Operations and Clandestine Laboratories, of which OREA is a member, made a recommendation to the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services to create a registry of former marijuana grow operations.
At its last meeting, PAG’s co-chairs announced that the group’s recommendations were going through the government’s internal review process. There has been no additional update from the government or PAG on our proposal. PAG is expected to meet in the coming months.
The RCMP recently announced the creation of a national registry of former marijuana grow operations. Unfortunately, due to the limited jurisdictional coverage of the RCMP in Ontario the registry is of little use. OREA is hopeful that the provincial government will regard the RCMP registry as an impetus to forge ahead with their own registry.
To learn more about OREA’s key lobby issues visit the government relations section of our website.
A top priority of OREA must be to ensure that the real estate industry retains control of Realtor.ca.and the listing data in the MLS systems that were built and paid for by realtors. This information belongs to realtors and should not be available for public access.
Orea’s top priority and mandate should be to protect the interests of its members.
I strongly agree With Ian Witherspoon. Orea’s priority should be to protect the interests of its members, otherwise why have an Ontario Real Estate Association at all??
This information was originally shared with the public to help the public and realtors work together!
Let’s protect this information so that we can continue to have real estate salespeople that can earn a living!!!
I have to agree with Mr. Witherspoon. It seems to me that there are far more pressing matters to deal with than the three items OREA has picked.
What about the integity of our marketing systems? What about property rights?
Dear Mary,Jamie and Ian:
Thank you for your comments.
On behalf of its members, OREA is the voice of REALTORS at Queen’s Park. The issues outlined about involve the advocacy work conducted by OREA with the Government of Ontario.
Issues involving information on MLS or realtor.ca are handled by the Canadian Real Estate Association and do not directly involve the Government of Ontario.
OREA has a Government Relations Committee made up of volunteer REALTORS who decide what issues the association conducts its advocacy on. The above issues have been identified as priority issues for 2011/12. OREA regularly lobbies on an assortment of other issues including property rights.
For example, in 2009/10 OREA worked with the Government of Ontario to amend the Mining Act to curtail the practice of mining prospectors entering onto private land without notice or permission. Our efforts resulted in a new Act that significantly strengthened property rights in this province.
If you have a suggestion for an issue you’d like to see OREA lobby the provincial government on please write our department at governmentrelations@orea.com.
Thanks again for your comments,
Matthew Thornton
Manager, Government Relations
Why not make these messages printer friendly? If I want to print the issue, I don’t want all the extra pages and the topic broken up on several pages. Remember the trees – and my storage space.
M Mc Nab
Hi Margo,
At the bottom of every blog post, there’s a set of icons. The second one from the right creates a print friendly version.
I hope that helps,
Georgia