Advocacy
CREA's major lobbying planks were represented in both Liberal and Conservative platforms for the 2015 federal election, a huge validation of our long-standing and consistent approach to federal affairs.
Election campaign was good for CREA
Two of the three main parties in the recent Canadian general election endorsed major parts of CREA's long-standing efforts to improve the Home Buyer's Plan, an incredibly popular program that helps first-time buyers finance their down payment by letting them borrow up to $25,000 from their RRSPs and repay the money back over 15 years.
More than 1,500,000 Canadians have taken advantageof the HBP since 2000. This past year alone, the HBP generated more than $2.7 billion in spin-off spending and created more than 20,000 jobs.
The Conservative Party said it would increase the maximum withdrawal amount from $25,000 to $35,000, essentially endorsing CREA's request that the withdrawal limit be increased and thereafter indexed to inflation. Meanwhile, the Liberal Party said it would commit to allowing homebuyers to access their RRSPs a second time when faced with a life-changing event such as a marital separation, a move for employment purposes, or a move to accommodate a family member.
This achievement is compelling evidence that CREA's slow, steady approach to lobbying, including PAC Days and the efforts of the member-driven Federal Affairs Committee, works. We are confident that the Liberals, who won the election, will implement what they said they would. We will certainly continue to press the issue, and even encourage them to also implement the increase to the withdrawal limit.
A key point here is that CREA is careful to align its lobbying objectives with government policy, and we work hard to demonstrate that what we ask for results in modest foregone tax revenues offset by the higher economic activity they prompt.
Government change means new challenges for Federal Affairs
Effective government relations is made up of a number of facets. Strategically, we must choose which issues to bring forward, research their impact, and decide how to present them. More tactically, we need to decide when to engage government and who is best positioned to make the case for change.
Even so, we can get all of that right and, no matter how worthy our cause, still not effect meaningful change if we don't do the "relations" part of government relations well.
Political campaigns and elections are fun and exciting for those of us who work in government relations because they are a huge opportunity to get our message across. Success consists of seeing our lobbying objectives become campaign promises. But every campaign ends with a vote, and in 2015, that vote resulted in a new government. That translates into a lot of work on the "relations" front.
A new Prime Minister, new Ministers, new MPs and new staff across the board means a lot of new people to get to know and with whom we must build trust before we can introduce our industry's issues and concerns. In many ways, then, the 2015 election means 2016 will be back to the basics from a lobbying perspective at CREA.
FINTRAC set for renewed examinations
The current rollout of FINTRAC (Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada) regulations that REALTORS® are integrating into their business practices had its origins in an audit in 2008 by the international body that reviews how well individual countries are living up to their commitments to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. That body, the Financial Action Task Force, is again auditing Canada, and CREA and several real estate brokers met with the auditors in November to discuss how Canada can comply with its international treaty obligations without placing undue regulatory burdens on REALTORS®.
Educating both REALTORS® and consumers
A big part of CREA's advocacy efforts are aimed at giving both REALTORS® and consumers tools they need to succeed.
In the case of REALTORS®, CREA develops courses or partners with local real estate boards and associations in the development of courses that help REALTORS® better understand and comply with FINTRAC, Canada's Anti-Spam Law (CASL) and other regulatory requirements.
For consumers, CREA works with government agencies and others to develop consumer education materials. One big one, a collaboration with the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, is the Homebuyer's Road Map. This past year saw editions published in Chinese, Punjabi and Tagalog, representing Canada's most commonly spoken minority languages. Other publications help inform consumers about the risks of radon gas, or marijuana grow operations and synthetic drug labs that may have operated in a house.
CREA tackles FINTRAC with lobbying, education
FINTRAC continues to be a major preoccupation of CREA's federal affairs efforts. This past year saw CREA work with REALTORS® across Canada to map out typical residential and commercial real-estate transactions in Canada so that government and regulators can better understand exactly what the process is. In this way, the rules that are put in place will better reflect the usual operating procedures of buying and selling real estate.
For example, since the beginning of January, REALTORS® have been required to conduct enhanced due diligence on customers who do two or more transactions with them within five years. The simple, everyday occurrence of selling one house and buying another, something that families do all the time with the same REALTOR®, triggers this threshold and imposes a significantly greater regulatory burden on the REALTOR®. CREA is working hard to get regulators to understand this reality and to adjust the regulations accordingly.
REALTOR® Action Network
It's cutting edge. It's online. It's easy to use. It's the REALTOR® Action Network, or RAN.
Lobbying government can be complicated and confusing, to say nothing about slow and frustrating. In a town with more than 6,000 lobbyists competing for the attention of Ministers, MPs and Senators, it's hard, and becoming harder all the time, to have our one voice be effectively heard. Fortunately, at CREA, we have a couple of aces up our sleeve.
Our first ace is you, the REALTOR® member on the street. Canada has more than 113,000 REALTORS® who work in virtually every city, town and village across the country. Our second ace is RAN, which gives REALTORS® a direct voice with the federal government.
But to make it all work, both aces must be played together, and we can't do that if our members don't join the Network. Less than one-tenth of REALTORS® in Canada have joined RAN, compared with the more than one-third who are members of the equivalent grassroots lobbying organization of the National Association of REALTORS® in the United States.
REALTORS® working together have been remarkably successful at lobbying the federal government for meaningful legislative initiatives that quantifiably improve their business opportunities and practices.
For example, many Canadians have used the Home Buyers Plan (HBP) to withdraw money from their RRSPs to buy their first home. REALTORS® lobbied for that program. The withdrawal amount was increased in 2009, due to REALTOR® lobbying. And in the 2015 election, the Liberal Party promised to extend the circumstances in which the program could be used, again due to REALTOR® lobbying.
Initially, federal anti=spam legislation made it illegal for REALTORS® to follow up a lead via email or text message. Imagine the impact for a moment if you were not allowed to do so. It took four years, but REALTOR® lobbying persuaded the government to make a regulatory change allowing REALTORS® to electronically follow up leads.
The CREA Board, Federal Affairs Committee and staff spend significant amounts of time on the FINTRAC file. More changes are coming in the new year. Our more than 113,000 members can make a lot of noise. Join RAN, and help yourself be heard loud and clear.