(This letter was originally sent to Ontario Real Estate board presidents, OREA CEO and President and ORWP Task Force members on August 30,2023. I have been encouraged to share this letter by a member of a board whose President shared it with the entire board. Feel free to reach out for source material indicated by the number in brackets.) TF
"OREA launched a months-long effort to inform the membership and member boards/associations about the program and to seek input and comments"(1) ~ Tania Artenosi, President OREA
Dear Ms. Artenosi,
Do you know how many emails I received about OREA'S "Reality" party last November? You know, the party that lost over a million dollars? Do you know how many times OREA reached out to give me the opportunity to buy tickets? TWENTY-THREE!(2) That's right, between June 29 and November 18, 2022, I received TWENTY-THREE emails about this conference. TWENTY-THREE emails about guest speakers, (including a washed up, morally bankrupt, American politician) coming to speak to a group of Realtors®.
In contrast, during your "months-long effort" to inform the membership about the MANDATORY ORWP, you sent out FOUR woefully inadequate emails (3), withholding information that would be pertinent to anybody making an informed decision. You used words like “potential”, "if approved", "viability and scope", "proposed", and "offering". Do you know what word was missing from every single email you used to "inform us"? MANDATORY. The word mandatory was not written in a single one of your emails prior to June 20, 2023. Not once prior to the vote was the word MANDATORY used in print by OREA in their email communication. You need to be held accountable to each and every one of us for your attempt to gaslight us with your "months-long effort to inform" rhetoric.
Do you honestly believe that four emails in 3 months regarding the MANDATORY ORWP is an effort?
You and the rest of the OREA "leadership" clearly didn't respect your membership enough to afford us the same opportunity with the ORWP as you did with Reality. I had TWENTY-THREE chances to buy tickets to a party. You asked me ZERO times if I wanted mandatory insurance . You told me ZERO times that I’d be required to participate in the ORWP as a condition of my membership with OREA/my board/CREA.
"OREA has been up front about the ORWP from the beginning" and has "fully disclosed everything about the program on the ORWP website"(4) ~ Tania Artenosi, President OREA
First of all, the FAQ’s that the membership initially had, did not include the word mandatory.(5) Also, this quote is in stark contrast to short pdf descriptions(6) that were uncovered on the OREA website (that have since been deleted). These were short descriptions, possibly excerpts of the minutes of the meetings of the ORWP Task Force. The 1st meeting note said "they can't make these services mandatory, they can't make anything mandatory" while the 4th meeting said "positive to date but details like the mandatory nature of the program have not been...". Have not been, what? Disclosed? Carrying on... Meeting #5 and meeting #8 have the same note; "did not include messaging on mandatory aspect of the program". EIGHT meetings in, and the task force is still withholding the true nature of the plan. Why? Perhaps the answer lies in the excerpt of meeting #2 “if the program is not made mandatory, the uptick in the program would not be much, with less than 10% membership participation".
YOU KNEW! You knew that fewer than 9600 people would voluntarily partake in the program. You knew that the mandatory aspect of the program wouldn't be well received. You knew by the 2nd meeting that it wasn't a viable program! And yet, you kept moving forward. Why? What was to gain if you knew that fewer than 10% would benefit? Is it as everyone has said, that OREA needed something to prove they were still relevant to our industry?
"I look forward to collaborating with our Realtor members"(7) ~ Tania Artenosi, President OREA
The Oxford dictionary defines "collaboration" as 1. the action of working with someone to produce or create something and 2. traitorous cooperation with an enemy. The ORWP task force was struck after the Peak Leadership which ran from January 18-20. That exciting news was not shared with the membership. An RFP was initiated on February 15th(8) and still no word to us. March 3rd, you made your first statement to the membership as president and you still didn't tell us about the task force. March 16, OREA sent out an email to all its members advising of the amazing deals we could get, as OREA members, for TD life insurance and NFP health insurance. (Another of these emails was sent June 19, 2023 - the day before we were mandated to the ORWP.)
Finally, on March 20, in an email, you told us about the existence of the program and the task force. (Thank God I didn't rush out and get the insurance proffered by OREA 4 days earlier.) This was the first mention in your "months-long effort to inform" us about the ORWP. You said you wanted to "build upon member boards achievements and broaden these types of programs" across the province. Until tody, you didn't mention how that building and broadening would affect the life insurance policies of numerous retired TRREB members. But I digress. April 4, a contract was signed between OREA and an insurance broker (or insurance consultant). No mention of this to the membership. No update, no progress report. No “collaborating” of any sort. Was there even an avenue explored for the possibility of fewer than 96,000 participants? Or was it always the "buying power of 96,000"(9) unsuspecting realtors?
You sent out a survey, buried deep within an email on April 28, 2023 – a simple hyperlink that said “here” sandwiched between two identical hyperlinks (again, in stark contrast to the BIG BLACK BUTTON offering me tickets in twenty-three emails about Reality). Your survey didn't ASK the one question you should have asked under OREA's mandate to be accountable to Realtor members(10): DO YOU WANT A MANDATORY BENEFIT PACKAGE AT YOUR OWN EXPENSE? Simple. One question that would prove you were truly abiding by the “Guiding Principles” of OREA to “engage” and “do the right thing”(11). One question to suggest your interest in "collaborating with" us wasn’t just lip service.
You didn't even attempt to reach a meaningful representation of the membership; you sent it once and received barely a response, never asking IF we wanted it in the first place, yet you felt it compelling enough to move forward in binding us to a mandate of this magnitude! One survey was the extent of your effort to engage the membership. Again I remind you, I got TWENTY-THREE pokes and prods to buy tickets to the "party".
And all along, you kept extolling the virtuous path OREA was on to “have our backs” and provide the “safety net"(12) for us that we didn’t have. Do you know how many of these plans one would need to be a true “safety net”? $25,000 for critical illness(13)? Your "safety net" is a band-aid at best in the face of true critical illness. Also, can you explain why you continue to say the ORWP will benefit "the cancer survivor"(14)? If cancer wasn't a disease that has robbed each and every one of us of a loved one, your statement might be laughable; because aren't pre-existing conditions excluded from coverage under this plan? Wouldn't being the survivor of a horrible illness prevent one from claiming future benefits?
"Our number one goal at OREA is to have our members' backs and our surveys have shown time and time again that a benefits program is a top desire"(15) ~ OREA
What surveys? You won't respond to anybody who asks about the surveys. Why? It sounds like a lot of surveys were conducted and even though the results aren’t being requested, you also won’t provide details of the surveys, ie. Who conducted them, when were they conducted, how were they conducted, how many people took part, what were the surveys seeking to find?
It is time Ms. Artenosi; time for you to do the right thing, the ethical thing. Take some time to listen to the members and their real needs and wants; put yourself in our shoes and make room for all perspectives. Truly make an effort. Because, I’m afraid that moving forward without the support of your membership is only going to threaten the 100 years our predecessors spent building the foundation of our livelihoods. There is a small army now and try as they might to remain positive, sentiment is starting to take on Oxford's 2nd meaning of "collaboration". Take a step back, press the “pause button” and give your membership a reason to Trust in Real Estate.
Sincerely
Tina Forte
Sources: (all available upon request)
1. ORWP Straight Talk email from Tania Artenosi – July 26, 2023 (actual email available upon request).
2. See attachment of list of Reality emails June 29, 2022-November 18, 2022 (actual emails available upon request).
3. Emails from Tania Artenosi dated March 20, 2023, April 28, 2023, May 26, 2023 and June 6, 2023 (actual emails available upon request).
4. Current FAQ’s on OREA website as a response to Q5.
5. Original FAQ’s attached.
6. See attachments for screenshots.
7. Email announcing Tania Artenosi as the new president on March 3, 2023 (actual email available upon request).
8. FAQ Q8.
9. OREA email July 31, 2023 (actual email available upon request).
10. Produced by the Real Estate Council of Ontario, see attached.
11. Guiding Principles on OREA website.
12. Email from Tania Artenosi April 28, 2023 (actual email available upon request).
13. OREA ORWP standard plan attached.
14. OREA public statement on the OREA website June 20, 2023.
15. OREA email July 7, 2023 (actual email available upon request)