Home inspection regulation is quebec next???

[Gilles Larin]

IS QUÉBEC NEXT on the “closed shop” syndrome for Home Inspectors?

If you read the Quebec Agency regulating real Estate (OACIQ) where all real estate agents in Québec have to be active members, all pre-purchase inspections emanating from sales from their agents, roughly about 90% of the real estate sales in Québec, will only be done by members of the Quebec Order of Professional Technologists! This becomes effective January 15 2012!
No grandfathering here! All home inspectors will have to fill-in mandatory application forms and purchase their in-house (and outrageously expensive) E&O Insurance and some will have to go back to school (if one can afford that) to complete a 3 year community college diploma in order to qualify for membership as a “techie”!
Talk about restricting freedom of choice and a free market!
Home Inspector Associations who have some membership in Québec should vigorously and legally oppose such practices, be it in Québec or anywhere!
G

[Marcel Gratton]

More info at:

http://oaciq.com/en/articles/complia...ns-you-closely

[Wand Raymond]

http://oaciq.com/en/articles/home-in...rees-du-quebec

Perhaps I missed something, but I don't see anything in the act giving this body the right to select one group over the other and to its own arbitrary standards.

http://oaciq.com/en/the-oaciq/by-laws-and-regulations

Anti competitive? Exclusion?
Creates a monopoly in light of the fact it controls 90% of the real estate sales?

It would also appear it may be contrary to a Competition Bureau ruling..

2. Rules and regulations should not restrict competition any more than is necessary to achieve the desired objectives.

4. Rules and regulations must be impartial and not self-serving – i.e, they should not constrain the ability of particular market participants to compete.


5. Rules and regulations should be subject to periodic review and assessment.


6. To the extent possible, associations should seek to promote open competition in order to maximize consumer benefits and the efficient utilization of resources.


Competition Bureau Revisits its Self-Regulated Professions Study After Four Years



September 6, 2011



On September 2, 2011, the Competition Bureau released its “ex-post assessment” of its 2007 Self-Regulated Professions Study (Self-regulated professions – Balancing competition and regulation (December, 2007)).
According to the Bureau, its new Study “surveys and assesses developments that have taken place relating to recommendations made in [its] 2007 Study” and “provides an overview of the progress made since 2007” to the earlier recommendations made by the Bureau.
In 2007, the Bureau released a Study on the rules and regulations governing five Canadian professions (real estate agents, pharmacists, lawyers, accountants and optometrists), intended to study the impact (or lack of it in some cases) of competition on the self-regulated professions in Canada.


The Bureau’s 2007 Study examined six aspects of self-regulation – in particular, restrictions on entering a profession, mobility, business structure, scope of services/practice, advertising and pricing and compensation – and made 53 recommendations to the various professions in an effort to try and enhance competition in those professions.
In addition to these specific issues, the Bureau’s 2007 Study also set out the following six “guiding principles” for how professional associations and, to the extent relevant, provincial governments, should approach the self-regulation of professionals from a competition law perspective:

For the Bureau’s news release see:
Competition Bureau Releases Ex-Post Assessment of the Self-Regulated Professions Study
For the Bureau’s study see:
Self-Regulated Professions – Post-Study Assessment
For the Bureau’s 2007 Study see:
Self-regulated professions – Balancing competition and regulation

[Gilles Larin]

Very informative Raymond. Thanks!

The website does not as yet show the amended rules (rule 82) but will soon.

G.

[Nick Gromicko]

Good post Ray.

[Wand Raymond]

OTTAWA, December 11, 2007 — Canada’s self-regulated professions should re-examine their rules to ensure they serve a public good and do not go too far in restricting competition, a Competition Bureau study says.


http://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/eng/02540.html

The Bureau’s study, released today, found that rules that limit advertising, set prices for services and restrict who can offer professional services may go further than necessary to protect the public interest. Further, these rules can lead to higher prices, limit choice and restrict access to the type of information consumers need to make decisions.


the Bureau uncovered numerous instances of rules that regulators should consider revising or removing to promote greater competition to serve consumers better and enhance productivity. Here are some examples:

• limits on who can offer certain professional services, which lead to consumers paying higher prices or paying for more service than they really need; and
• uneven licensing requirements across the country that limit the number of professionals and restrict their ability to move where there is demand for their services.
• creating unnecessary entry restrictions through the establishment of excessive educational, training or other requirements for supplying a professional service, or directly or indirectly limiting the number of persons that can enter a profession;
• unnecessarily restricting the inter-jurisdictional mobility of members of professions;
• excluding from the scope of practice for members of a profession or occupation, the supply of services that they are qualified to provide;
• unnecessarily restricting the advertising or marketing of professional services;
• regulating or encouraging the use of specific fee or compensation structures; and
• unnecessarily restricting the business structures available to members of a profession.

[Roy D. Cooke, Sr]

Thanks Ray again as per usual you find and report so much great information....Roy