Residential Real Estate Broker Industry Council Update

A message from your Chair, Sano Stante

On December 1, 2020, Sano Stante was appointed by the other Residential Real Estate Broker Industry Council members to be its first Chair. Mr. Stante has been a real estate licensee for 35-years and was elected to the Industry Council by his industry peers in November 2020. Mr. Stante is currently an associate broker with Re/Max Real Estate (Central) in Calgary, and has served many years as a director of CREB®, including a term as President in 2011, many years as a director at the Canadian Real Estate Association, and as Chair of Attainable Homes Calgary.

The past five months have been incredibly busy for the Residential Real Estate Broker Industry Council as we work to fulfill our regulatory mandate. As you all know, RECA’s governance was ‘on pause’ for about 18 months as the governance changes were developed and implemented by Service Alberta. I liken it to returning to the Cabin after being away for the year. We are dusting off the furniture and everyone is getting comfortable again.

Work so far

As my fellow Chairs have indicated, education divestment is a top priority for our Industry Council. RECA must divest itself of licensing education by Dec 1, 2022. This does not mean it can’t happen before then, and we will not delay any process in the divestment. There’s a lot of work that must be done and we remain committed to properly hand off education in an open, fair, and transparent process.

We must set the education requirements for courses and course providers. Primary to this is establishing the competencies and learner outcomes. These competencies are currently being established and we will be consulting with all stakeholders throughout this process. Once completed, all of the decisions made regarding education divestment must ultimately be approved by the Minister of Service Alberta.

The Industry Council has also undergone a comprehensive onboarding process, mandatory governance training, and begun stakeholder engagement.

Stakeholder engagement will be an important part of everything the Industry Council does. Right out of the gate we had discussions with stakeholders to develop a master list of potential items to discuss as agenda items at our first meetings. To accommodate everything we needed to discuss, we doubled the number of meetings in the first three months. While we have a long list of overdue housekeeping items to attend to, we are also committed to discussing strategic items on every agenda. Some of these initial items included discussing a mentorship process for new licensees, reviewing the RMS, and reviewing concerns associated with the disclosure of conditionally accepted offers.

We are committed to consulting with stakeholders on all these items, and any changes to the standards must be approved by the Minister of Service Alberta.

We held our first Online Engagement Session on April 26. I would like to thank the more than 200 people who registered to attend. I encourage you to watch the session, and to take part in our other engagement opportunities. Reach out to the Industry Council through the ResIC@reca.ab.ca email address, and check for new consultations, meeting minutes, and more on the Industry Council webpage. Let us know your thoughts on RECA’s strategic direction by filling out the Strategic Planning form. We will also be hosting new Broker Forums soon. If you are a broker or broker delegate and you would like to participate in the discussion, please let me know at ResIc@reca.ab.ca.

What’s on the Agenda Next?

Very shortly, all residential real estate licensees will be receiving a national survey on the core competencies for residential and commercial real estate professionals. This is part of a national effort to harmonize real estate competencies to allow for labour mobility between provinces. This is also part of the Industry Council process for the setting of the competencies and learner outcomes required for education divestment. I urge you to take the time to complete the survey. Your feedback is an important consideration in the setting of the new competency profiles which sets the future direction of education for our industry.

The Industry Council will provide input to the Board of Directors as they work to set new Bylaws concerning eligibility for Industry Council elections, and will continue discussions on mentorship, RMS and non-reporting of conditional sales. Future agendas will continue to discuss strategic issues, as well as take a renewed focus on rules and standards. We invite your input and suggestions regarding emerging issues such as new business models, crypto-transactions, and new-media advertising.

I look forward to getting the entire sector engaged with the Industry Council. We are a self-regulated industry, and to keep it that way we all have to do our part in a constructive, positive fashion. Let me know what you think. What issues are you seeing? Are there any regulatory requirements that don’t have a public interest objective? Are there any regulatory requirements that could achieve the public interest objective in a way that impedes business less? 

I want to hear from you!