Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to talk today about a bunch of real estate concerns that I’ve seen go by without any particular attention that needs to be brought to it. Most people in the Northwest Territories will know that there is no current legislation or regulation that oversees real estate appraisals, which is kind of a weird situation because if there’s no regulation or legislation, who knows how these things are being performed? In other words, who’s keeping an eye on industry, and certainly, who’s keeping an eye out for hard-working families.
There can be many problems that can arise from that particular situation. For example, banks and lenders rely on accurate appraisals to ensure that these things are done properly. The ramification can be serious. The impacts, we have to look no further than south of the Canadian border to see what happens from a bad ripple effect of unappreciated, unaccredited over-financing linked to bad appraisals.
There are remedies, and the Appraisal Institute of Canada has brought forward initiatives and, of course, high-quality professionalism and training since 1938, but these regulations and legislation requirements aren’t here in the Northwest Territories. However, Alberta, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick all require this.
Real estate concerns don’t end there. In this House I’ve asked for disclosure agreements. As most people will know, I think the only thing that a person has to disclose is if somebody died in a particular house. But what happens if someone is covering up mould? What if someone is covering up a cracked foundation? Other jurisdictions require this, again, for the hard-working families that are put into jeopardy if these types of things emerge, because the person selling the home covers it up and pretends they were never there.
Again, I think mentioned by Member Dolynny not too long ago, real estate sales people can represent both sides. So the bottom line is: Who is representing the interests of which person, whether they’re representing the seller, whether they’re representing the buyer, and does the new buyer realize that and fully understand the fact that the real estate person represents the seller?
The final issue I want to talk about under real estate concerns are a new home warranty. Many jurisdictions feel it’s very important, such as Ontario, that they protect their citizens by ensuring that new homes built come with a new home warranty.
So there are a lot of things that need to be done. Again, I call upon this government to start watching out for the hard-working Northerners who work hard to raise as much money as they can to buy their family home, the biggest treasure in their life.
I will have questions later today for the MACA Minister. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. McLeod.
