A record number of the REALTOR® community’s most politically engaged attended CREA’s annual advocacy conference “PAC Days” in Ottawa from April 26-28, 2015. 
In this 30th year of the annual event, politicians, public policy experts, journalists, and party insiders joined some of the most politically engaged REALTORS® from across Canada for the three day conference. Participants amplified their voice on social media using the event hashtag #CREAPAC15 and posting their #ProudREALTOR photos, drawing others into the PAC experience. As an important component of our industry’s federal advocacy program, it provided an opportunity for attendees to learn about and bring our REALTOR® Action Issues to their Members of Parliament (MPs). These crucial face-to-face meetings add constituent faces and local voices to our federal advocacy efforts and allow REALTORS® to demonstrate their passion, professionalism, and expertise in all real estate-related matters to government.
This year, attendees met with 129 MPs in just two days including 13 Ministers and 11 Parliamentary Secretaries. They discussed two important proposals. The first asks the government to halt the erosion in value of the Home Buyers’ Plan (HBP) by indexing it to inflation. The second asks to extend the HBP’s eligibility to help Canadians who must relocate for work to maintain homeownership. After years of successive lobbying by REALTORS®, the HBP was introduced by the government in 1992 as a temporary stimulus measure and was made permanent in 1994. It remains an important government program that continues to make homeownership more affordable for Canadians.
Learn more about our 2015 REALTOR® Action Issues and help show the value of the HBP to politicians and policy makers by taking our HBP survey on the REALTOR® Action Network.
