By Tore Jacobsen, Chair, FVREB GR Committee
We were all eager to get back to Government Liaison (GL) Days with the members of the FVREB Government Relations Committee, particularly in light of the provincial government passing legislation that brings the ‘cooling off’ period into effect later this summer, despite the lack of any details or framework.
While it was unfortunate that once again we had to attend virtually and miss out on valuable networking with GR Volunteers from around the province and in-person meetings with our local MLAs, the event still provided learning opportunities, healthy discussion and interesting takeaways for your GR Committee to consider moving forward through 2022 and into 2023.
As Chair of the GR Committee, I am keen to get started with our efforts and engage in meaningful discussions with our elected officials. We have an outstanding committee this year that well represents each of our municipalities within the FVREB and a diverse set of backgrounds as well. Members of the committee include:
- Tore Jacobsen, Chair
- Candy Ashdown
- Christopher Savage
- Colleen O’Keefe
- Herman Sandhu
- Jesse Gill
- Michael Katai
- Sharon Greyson
- Shen Po Chen
- Sunny Hundal
With the support of our dedicated Board staff, including Michelle Sparrow, Government Relations Lead and Conduct Advisor, who also sits on the committee, we look forward to a robust agenda of holding our representatives accountable as well as helping to educate them on the issues concerning our members and our clients, namely housing affordability and supply.
Our committee will look to work with our municipal governments to encourage them to become more efficient and timely in their application approval processes, we will look to continue to work with our provincial and federal representatives to find creative ways to move the needle on more housing supply and better infrastructure around it, and connect with our members in new ways to hear the concerns they face each day with their clients and be their voice and advocate with our elected officials.
The FVREB GR Committee has a long history of being a role-model for real estate board GR Committees across the country of effective advocacy and initiative. Although COVID-19 changed the landscape and dampened activities for a couple years, your GR Committee for 2022 is fully committed once again to regain our form and a renewed passion to be more aggressive in our efforts and results than ever before.