Council Priorities

Ralph Salomons, Chair

I would like to use this opportunity to highlight some of Council’s current priorities. As always, Council looks forward to continuing the dialogue with industry members on issues of mutual interest and importance.

Education

There has been a trend towards real estate regulators taking a more active role in licensing and re-licensing education across the country and RECA has been proactive in this respect.

As early as the fall of 2006, RECA began to re-focus its attention on education when it made changes to the professional development requirements of industry members, which were implemented in 2007. Council was of the opinion that its role in continuing education should be to focus on the Real Estate Act, Rules and related regulatory and consumer protection issues. These are areas where RECA has direct responsibility, experience and expertise.

Courses will be developed and offered when the information is timely and required for each industry sector. For example, in the current licensing year, 2008 to 2009, real estate appraisers are required to complete the Mortgage Fraud Awareness course that was originally developed for the real estate and mortgage broker sectors. There are no requirements in the current licensing year for real estate industry members or mortgage industry members.

This past August, Council elected to change the name of its continuing professional development program to the Re-licensing Education Program (REP). The new name better reflects and defines RECA’s ongoing role in industry member re-licensing education. Any courses that are mandatory for industry members to complete before they can renew their authorizations with RECA will be part of the Re-licensing Education Program. An article on this change can be read, here.

RECA has approved a set of core values for RECA Education initiatives. These core values were developed after substantial work by the Real Estate Education Committee, and after taking into consideration tremendous changes occurring in the areas of adult and workplace learning. An article on these core values can be found, here.

Another important policy decision by Council was that RECA, as part of its core services, would develop and deliver licensing education courses in those areas that RECA has the expertise, such as the Phase 2 of the Real Estate Associates Program (REAP). RECA’s target date for developing and delivering Phase 2 of the REAP is January 2011.

In accordance with the recommendation of the Real Estate Education Committee, Council will be conducting a review of Phase 1 of the REAP. Specifically, Council will examine whether it should be mandatory that all individuals complete “Introduction to a Career in Real Estate” before proceeding to Phase 2 and 3 of the Program. I anticipate that review will be initiated later this year.

RECA is currently collaborating with the Alberta Mortgage Brokers Association in the development of a new Mortgage Associate’s Program (MAP).

TILMA/AIT

In the coming months, industry members will likely hear increased references to the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (or TILMA) between Alberta and British Columbia, and the national Agreement on Internal Trade (or AIT). April 1, 2009, is the deadline for substantial portions of these groundbreaking agreements.

These agreements share, as a common purpose, the desire to remove artificial barriers to trade and labour mobility between Alberta and B.C. under TILMA, and nationally, under AIT.

RECA is working diligently with government and other regulators to ensure its policies and procedures with respect to licensing reciprocity abide by the provisions of these two agreements. Real estate industry members are captured by both agreements and mortgage industry members are covered by TILMA, but it is anticipated that mortgage industry members will eventually be included in the provisions of AIT.

Under AIT, the April 1 deadline requires that regulatory bodies “mutually recognize” qualified workers without any additional re-training, re-testing or re-assessment. Exceptions to full labour mobility, and therefore licensing reciprocity, will be permissible but must be clearly justified as necessary to achieve a legitimate objective. RECA is already prepared to meet the spirit and the letter of both TILMA and AIT.

Council strongly believes that focusing on the core priorities outlined in its three-year business plan will ensure it fulfills its regulatory mandate. But as much as these priorities are central to the work RECA does, without the cooperation of industry members, none of it would be possible.

 

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