Wow – hard to believe it’s 2015. I hope everyone had a joyous and fulfilling holiday season; much of mine was happily spent in the kitchen, feeding really great people. Plus we played games, watched movies and drank wine. It … Continue reading →
Fish and fruit are such a perfect combination. This particular dish was inspired by an article I read which talked about the popular Hawaiian pairing of canned Spam and pineapple (I kid you not). That might be tasty….but I think … Continue reading →
CONSUMERS' REFORM TARION | A discussion forum for issues relating to consumer protection and the new home buying experience in Ontario.
It seems to obvious to say a consumer protection organization should welcome consumer feedback. Like saying 2 +2 = 4. But anyone who’s ever dealt with the Ontario government’s arms-length monopoly, Tarion Warranty Corporation, knows sometimes 2+ 2 can equal 7.
Tarion was entrusted with protecting consumers who discover construction defects in their new homes, and regulating new home builders. You’d think their lifeblood would be consumer feedback. Dialogue with consumers helps companies get constructive feedback, and fix what’s wrong.
Consumers aren’t interested in Tarion’s builder awards, golf tournaments or charity donations. They want what they paid for, a new home free of construction defects, which they’re entitled to under Ontario law.
Tarion blocks consumers on social media if they don’t like their policy critique. The Ministry who’s supposed to oversee this monopoly confuses consumers by taking the side of Tarion, backing off when Tarion says boo, or telling consumers to get a lawyer.
Why do we need a government warranty if their advice is to contact a lawyer? Tarion also tells consumers ro take their cases to the License Appeal Tribunal, where consumers lose 85% of the time, or to the internal Tarion ombudsperson, who doesn’t get involved in claims, and reports to Tarion. What good is either?
A case in point is Tarion’s recent “Annual Public Meeting” May 24th, 2018. It’s annual, but not “public” in any meaningful way.
only some pre-selected questions sent by e-mail are answered; the answers are rote and predictable, often referring consumers to websites, and some answers are misleading;
Each year there are technical glitches, this year the sound and video failed and left partly garbled text feeding across the screen. The Tarion-ism “conciliation“, (puzzling even when spelled correctly), was rendered as “con-sill-viation”, the computer not knowing what to make of this either.
Beware of the posturing and spin, which doesn’t give the full picture from the new home buyer perspective. For example:
1) The Chair of the board, one of 8 builders on the board, said Tarion has now “enhanced consumer protection” and “improvement in dispute resolution.” He gave no examples. No one I’ve spoken to in the last year can point to any improvements at all. Saying it’s so doesn’t make it so.
2) The internal Tarion “Consumer Advisory Council” which is supposed to inform board members of the consumer perspective, is smoke and mirrors. The Tarion Chair stated these members have “vast experience” with Tarion, but they are anonymous, and can’t be contacted by consumers. A condo lawyer, a former building inspector, a real estate agent, and “consumer reps”, we are told, are part of this council. I’ve met two of these members by chance at other meetings, and found them alarmingly uninformed about Tarion. One said to me “I don’t know anything about Tarion, I haven’t been briefed yet.” This makes sure they won’t be giving any meaningful feedback on consumer problems. The CEO told me in 2016 he can’t have consumers troubling these council members. This is irresponsible.
3) One pre-submitted question was re developers selling pre-construction condos, then abruptly cancelling the project. Tarion’s K. Brodie, V.P. of Warranty Services, said they can ask the builder for reasons and then review them, but basically they have no power to do anything. So if a builder cancels a project to later re-market it at a higher price, Tarion is a toothless regulator, even if the reasons appear “improper”. What are the consumer’s rights? “Talk to your real estate lawyer“, says Tarion. Consumers who’ve done so have had lawyers literally laugh in their face at the futility of finding any consumer protection here.
4) If Tarion won’t honour your warranty claim, you can go to the License Appeal Tribunal, which is “independent”, says Tarion. What they don’t tell you is consumers lose 85% of these cases. Tarion is always represented by lawyers, and you’re up against 2 sets of counsel, Tarion’s and the builder’s. Most consumers have to self-represent due to the high cost of hiring specialized litigation lawyers. This is not fair or balanced dispute resolution.
5) Tarion’s V.P. Ms. Waraich, past-president of the Liberal Party, seemed pleased to state: “this is the builder’s warranty”. Not the whole truth. The builder pays the warranty fee initially, then passes it on to the consumer in the purchase contract, and it’s usually not itemized. The warranty is mandatory under Ontario law, you can’t opt out of it, you’re stuck with Tarion.
6) Re policy-making, the new chair said Tarion is un-biased toward builders, and develops policies to protect consumers. He gave the usual example of making builders pay for major structural defects, whereas this was previously paid for out of the warranty fund. Not so either. We understand from several sources that good builders were fed up paying for sloppy builders’ work, and wanted them to pay for their own defects, so this new policy was developed. But Tarion spins this as – look how consumer-friendly we are! These are the same board members who try to sell us “builders are all consumer members”, and “builders are the best ones to speak for the consumer.” They seem to think we’re fools.
At the end of the 2-hour webcast, the CEO lamented “Tarion is a misunderstood organization”, and “staff at Tarion truly cares“, “but we can’t be the lightning rod for everything which goes wrong“.
He won’t find a lot of sympathy for this. Tarion is a government-granted monopoly, has no competitors, operates free of any real oversight, pays sky-high “secret” executive compensation, and sits on over $400 million, most of it collected from warranty fees passed on to consumers.
They’ve built firewalls to suppress real consumer feedback, they block homeowners on social media, and hide behind a webcast annual meeting. They drop the “L“-word (lawyer) whenever they can to scare off pesky consumers, block consumer advocates from board or senior positions, and their annual meeting is, frankly, embarrassing to watch.
Why does our Ontario government keep trying to sell us the idea this is a “consumer protection” organization? Because builder lobby groups are deep-pocketed, politically well-connected, and new home building is a huge economic engine the government is reluctant to reign in. And powerful industries don’t like being reigned in either. Consumers have to fend for themselves, and have no access to power-brokers or policy-making. The government is supposed to be on the consumer’s side, but it seems they’ve followed the money and power.
Hopefully a change in government, widely expected on June 8th, 2018, will finally take real action. A new government must show this “black box” for what it really is, another builder lobby group, this one financed by the consumer.
As 2017 closes, I want to thank all the consumers and consumer advocates who’ve worked so tirelessly for years to get the Ontario new home warranty legislation fixed. Everyone has contributed in their own special way, based on time and resources available. You’ve made a big impact on getting this broken system fixed.
I once asked the Minister of Consumer Services this question: if building lobbyists and Tarion are looking after their own interests, who’s looking after the consumer’s? It seems no one. We expect government to do this, but in my 7-year experience, they seem to understand the builder’s/Tarion’s perspective better than the consumer’s. There are few bona fide consumer advocates at policy-making levels, or none at all. For years, builder lobby organizations, Tarion executives, some condo lawyers, and ministry officials have tried to tell us they’re all consumer advocates. About as credible as the fox saying he’s protecting the chicken coop.
2018 may present new opportunities for a new bill which actually, finally, protects consumers. If the current Liberal government is not re-elected in June 2018, there may be a chance to seriously amend bill 166 to include more of the judge’s review recommendations, or bring new legislation which is consumer-focused.
Premier Wynne, at her town hall meetings these last two months, has been driving the theme of “fairness”. However she seemed irritated by questions about Tarion, on Nov. 20 and Dec. 13. She side-stepped policy questions put to her, and responded with – I’ve already spoken to “you”, I’ve already answered this, we’ve fixed the problems, speak to my staff, …. next question. This deflection reinforces the impression there’s something to hide in how the new legislation was arrived at. Such as stacking the consultations in favour of the industry and Tarion, and limiting the scope of discussions to produce the government’s desired outcome.
If Premier Wynne is really concerned about fairness, why wouldn’t she appoint a corporate monitor at Tarion – right now – reporting to the ministry to oversee fairness in dispute resolution until the new legislation takes effect in 2020? Three more years of waiting is unfair to consumers suffering under the current system. The judge’s review cited conflicts of interest at Tarion, yet consumers are supposed to just grin and bear it until 2020, while paying for this mandatory warranty under Ontario law. Leaving consumers vulnerable with no one on their side is not fair. The government not taking immediate action to protect consumers, knowing full well the existing conflicts of interest, is doubly unfair, even irresponsible.
To all those of you who’ve attended town halls, the judge’s consultations, contacted or visited your MPPs, or joined discussions on Twitter, Facebook, or blogs, you’ve made a big impact this year. Thank you. If we can’t get our own home defects fixed, or have been gagged by non-disclosure agreements, we can still help family and friends who are the new home buyers of the future.
Bill 166 may not be final; its failure to protect consumers may not be fatal; your work and determination will help fix the problems. Thank you to all, and best wishes for a healthy, safe, and consumer-friendly 2018.
At the highest levels of the legal profession, alarm bells have been ringing for years about the growing access to justice crisis for ordinary middle-class people who can’t afford the high hourly cost of lawyers to resolve everyday legal problems. Access to justice in Canada has been described by senior officials as “abysmal”.
Lawyers, judges, and lawmakers have all been urged to be part of the solution, not add to existing problems.
Premier Wynne, her Attorney-General Mr. Naqvi, and Minister of Consumer Services, Ms. MacCharles, seem to have not received the memo.
Here’s a timeline on an access to justice ticking time bomb the Wynne/McGuinty government has known about for decades, has publicly acknowledged, but failed to fix.
1) After years of complaints from consumers that they can’t get their new home construction defects resolved through the government’s monopoly, Tarion Warranty Corporation, Premier Wynne ordered a review of this arms-length agency of government in Nov. 2015.
2) The year-long review was conducted by a well-respected judge, consulted broadly with stakeholders, cost $750,000, and was released in 2017. It found “conflicts of interest”, “fundamental problems” with Tarion. It advised 37 changes, the main one to abolish the monopoly and bring in a competitive model for new home warranties.
3) The government brushed aside most of the review, without explanation, especially the key advice to abolish Tarion’s monopoly.
4) A consultation group was set up by the Ministry of Consumer Services, and was presented with a different framework than the judge recommended. The participants were stacked toward Tarion, those with business ties to Tarion, and members of the legal profession. Government lawyers were also present. Much of the judge’s key advice was ruled out of scope, for unexplained reasons.
5) The government introduced new legislation, bill 166, in November 2017, which gave the industry and Tarion what they wanted: to keep the monopoly Tarion, and give builders their own regulator. Consumers were left wondering where’s the consumer protection?
6) It seems we’re back now to where we started, a few baby steps forward, giant steps backward. Back to the Tarion in-house legal department protecting Tarion’s interests not the consumer’s, a monopoly with minimum oversight paying cushy executive salaries, the License Appeal Tribunal for disputes where the consumer loses 90% of the time, and the same internal ombudsperson reporting to Tarion, not perceived by the consumer as independent or impartial, and who avoids getting involved in warranty disputes.
Now the consumer won’t have to prove the cause of the defects apparently, but Tarion and builders undoubtedly will, since their interests are to deny claims and limit the amount of pay-outs, leaving consumers with one of the conflicts of interest the judge highlighted.
In order to be credible and balanced, dispute resolution has to be independent, impartial, cost-efficient, and timely. Each party has to have equal access to independent experts, and fair and balanced advice.
Bill 166 seems totally inadequate and overly vague. It’s fake consumer protection, with the usual posturing about consumers first, fairness and transparency, without delivering much of any of it.
This bill may lead to more problems. There’s still no fair, timely, cost-efficient, and balanced dispute resolution process which is clearly defined for consumers to rely on. Telling consumers they don’t have to prove the cause of the defect, while the opponents most certainly will, is not leveling the playing field, but shifting the goalposts, giving the most vulnerable party a false sense of security.
This government will likely pass bill 166, despite important amendments urged by Opposition MPPs, consumers, and consumer groups this week in depositions to the Social Policy Committee.
Lawmakers had one chance in 40 years to fix the Tarion problem once and for all. The problems and solutions were objectively researched and presented to Premier Wynne, Ministers MacCharles and Naqvi, and government lawyers. Instead of fixing the problems, they seem to have left us with more access to justice misery.
Bill 166 which you introduced last week to address years of complaints about the Tarion monopoly has largely ignored Justice Cunningham’s review released in March, 2017.
Concerns I raised on behalf of consumers in the consultations you conducted in June through August this year have all been brushed aside.
There is no clearly defined purpose statement in the bill. This has been an on-going concern with the former legislation, the ONHWPA. The judge’s 2017 review said new legislation should clearly state the consumer protection intent of the act. Bill 166 is called “Strengthening Protection for Ontario Consumers”, and includes concert ticket purchasers, who clearly don’t have the same risk profile, or anywhere near the long-standing history of complaints as new home buyers.
The judge’s #1 recommendation was the multi-provider model for new home warranties. You ruled this out of scope for the ministry consultations, providing no reason. It was clear during consultations that Tarion wanted to hold onto it’s monopoly. How does protecting Tarion’s monopoly protect consumers? You publicly stated, Premier Wynne, (April, 2013), “the days of monopolies are done.” You haven’t explained why this doesn’t apply to Tarion.
The “modern transparency and accountability measures” you promised in March 2017 seem to be just one: the Auditor-General’s power to conduct audits. This isn’t nearly enough. It ignores consumer and Opposition MPP calls for oversight by the Ombudsman of Ontario, and applicability of the Freedom of Information and Registered Lobbyist Acts. What are your reasons for not including these? Bill 166 states (pg. 43) that Tarion fees passed on to consumers “are not public money“. Yet consumers see them as such: they are mandatory, passed on to consumers by builders, money which in turn funds the warranty. This is an indirect tax we are required by law to pay. If not the public’s money, whose money is it?
The Administrative Authority model you’ve chosen to continue has been critiqued for over a decade as “rowing and steering” at the same time, i.e, setting policy and moving it along with minimal checks and balances. Bill 166 brings consumers little proof Tarion will act in the public interest. The judge’s review cited problems with a potential conflict in Tarion both protecting the warranty fund and deciding whether to pay out claims. This remains.
Builders still have a heavy presence on Tarion’s board. Where is the mandatory consumer representation on the board, a major concern for over a decade?
To say (pg. 85) consumers don’t have to prove the cause of defects may seem positive, but there’s no assurance Tarion won’t use its legal department or financial resources to dismiss legitimate claims. Where is the transparency for consumers to find out if claims are handled in a fair and balanced way? The internal ombudsman, reporting to Tarion’s board, has not been perceived as balanced and impartial. Yet you chose to keep this position. A compliance officer reporting to the ministry would have provided more independence and objectivity for consumers.
You’ve changed the wording of a major consumer protection clause (section 47 (b) because you say it had to be made gender-neutral. This has unfortunately watered-down the consumer protection content of the original wording. Changing the words “defect in workmanship“ to “built in a skillful way” is much more vague and easier for lawyers to manipulate to their advantage.
The License Appeal Tribunal has been preserved as the appeal mechanism for claims, despite a decade of concerns that homeowners lose over 90% of the cases.
The regulation-making authority of Tarion has been maintained, (pg. ii), despite consumer concerns. The annual oversight fee Tarion pays to the ministry for its own oversight has also been maintained. Board composition requirements (pg. 8) also seem un-changed, with no consumer advocates required.
Premier Wynne and Minister MacCharles, as the only consumer advocate in your 11-person working group, I strongly and repeatedly voiced concerns about ignoring the judge’s review, limiting the scope of discussions, and weighting the participants to favour Tarion and industry interests. I am told, I was “heard“, but nothing was done.
Builders got what they wanted from this bill: their own regulatory authority. Tarion got what it wanted: to keep its powerful monopoly with minimal oversight. What meaningful protection did consumers get?
You say nothing will be implemented until at least 2020. Regulations will take even longer. What of the consumers struggling under the current weak legislation? This ignores the urgency of these problems and leaves consumers to deal with 40-year-old legislation which doesn’t protect them in the biggest investment they make in their lives. An over-priced concert ticket may be forgotten five years from now. A new home with unresolved defects may bring financial and emotional hardship which can last a lifetime.
Both critics of the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services, MPP McDonell and MPP Gates have written to minister MacCharles, urging her to implement Justice Cunningham’s 37 recommendations in his Tarion Review, released five months ago.
The Premier has been vague about what the new legislation to be introduced this fall will contain. Amid all the talk of fairness and transparency, we still don’t know if the Premier will act in the public interest instead of political expediency, and the interests of big industry and Tarion.
What we do know is that Tarion has made it abundantly clear it doesn’t want to lose its monopoly, no surprises there. But ending the monopoly was the judge’s #1 recommendation, upon which the other 36 were based and inter-connected.
It’s time for Premier Wynne to put words to action and implement the judge’s 37 recommendations in new legislation this fall. Consumers have waited 40 years for reforms to Tarion, an “anomaly” model, in the judge’s words, which doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world.
Both letters of the Critics are posted below. Please take a moment to contact your local MPP to show your support for the Tarion Review and judge’s 37 recommendations. (Link and commentary on the review in previous posts on this blog.)
We all know someone who’s struggled for years with a medical problem, trying to get a correct diagnosis, with no road map for a cure. As the quotation above puts it (Mahatma Gandhi), there’s no remedy without first a diagnosis.
With this analogy, many similarities come to mind with the recent review of the 40-year old government monopoly, Tarion Warranty Corporation.
For over a decade, consumers, consumer groups, MPPs, journalists, and two former Ombudsmen of Ontario have raised concerns about lack of transparency and accountability at Tarion, it’s loose oversight, monopoly status, and builder-facing culture.
Monopolies don’t like to be critiqued, that’s clear, or lose their market position, that’s clear too. The Tarion monopoly has been left largely un-touched for decades, with ministry officials content to say they’re “working with Tarion“. Not overseeing, but working with. Huge difference for consumer protection.
The long-awaited Tarion review, commissioned by the government in Nov. 2015, was finally released in March of 2017. It was conducted by a seasoned judge, Justice Douglas Cunningham, with the assistance of Deloitte Consultants, and held consultations for over a year, costing taxpayers about $750,000.
The judge conducted wide-ranging talks with builders, insurance industry executives, consumers and lawyers. He came to the conclusion the monopoly model should be discontinued in Ontario, and the competitive model used in other provinces should be implemented. This was his recommendation #1, upon which the other 36 were based.
The judge told consumers in mid-2016 that once his review was released, it would be in the hands of the government to do something with it. That’s where we are now. Premier Wynne’s government has promised new legislation on Tarion this fall, but so far there’s been evasive communication about which of the 37 recommendations will be taken on board. One senses the political spin doctors in the background.
Premier Wynne said in e-mails to consumers that “Ontario …will move forward with the recommendations to further protect owners of newly built homes…” (14/06/17); (All of the 37?)
The Ombudsman of Ontario said the Ministry will move forward with “nine” recommendations to fix the dispute resolution process (12/07/17). We only see one in the government’s Terms of Reference for the consultation group it initiated (24/05/17);
This consultation group was provided with a list of items “out” of the discussion. The multi-provider model, recommendation #1, is one of them;
Some Liberal MPPs told their constituents the government will move forward with “many” of the judge’s recommendations, avoiding saying which ones;
Ministry officials told some consumers (28/07/17) that none of the 37 recommendations has been specifically ruled out, to date.
The only recommendation (#5) which seems to have already been taken on board by the government is the separation of the builder regulatory authority from the warranty authority. Builder lobby groups seem content with this, saying this would eliminate some conflicts of interest (28/03/17). Many think this should have been done years ago.
It may serve the government’s interests to be vague about exactly what its plans are for the legislation this fall, keeping as many voters on side as possible during the pre-election period, and trying not to run afoul of top corporate donors.
If past experience with this government is any indication of what they’ll do, they may rule certain recommendations “out of scope” when the new legislation is introduced. They may also give the bill a sales-y title like “Putting Consumers First”, as in the case of Bill 59 earlier this year.
It comes as no surprise that Tarion is reluctant to lose it monopoly status, and is giving push-back to the judge’s review, especially recommendation #1. Regarding the multi-provider model (recommendation #1), a senior Tarion official put it to me emphatically this way: “the judge was wrong!”
What’s clear to many consumers and journalists is Tarion doesn’t like scrutiny or critique of its policies. The fact that its CEO earns close to $1 million was revealed by an investigative journalist in October, 2016. New home buyers should have a right to see these salaries. They pay a fee to Tarion passed on by builders in the purchase price of the new home. Who benefits from keeping this compensation secret? Oversight by the Auditor-General alone is unlikely to fix the transparency and accountability problems.
To consumers reading the judge’s review, (posted on the ministry’s website), all 37 of the judge’s recommendations make sense, and would help increase protection for new home buyers.
For example, recommendation #22, based on the key recommendation #1, states: “Each warranty provider should be required to have an internal dispute resolution process in place to facilitate the resolution of disputes between new home owners and builders and an internal review process for its decisions.”
If you take a holistic approach in analyzing a complex problem and then prescribe a remedy, you don’t expect someone to implement your plan piecemeal. To do so may distort the overall outcome.
The problems of Tarion are complex and inter-related. To implement only a few of the judge’s recommendations may not fix the serious problems he uncovered in his review. To kick the can further down the road, taking more time and more money for research, will add to the suffering consumers are already experiencing with this out-of-date legislation.
If the serious problems the judge outlined – the conflicts of interest, transparency and accountability gaps, and imbalances in dispute resolution – are not solved by new legislation this fall, the doctor won’t be to blame, nor his diagnosis, nor the prescription not taken.
The last time I saw Earl Shuman was in a crowded, noisy, mid-town cafe, the kind of place he must have abhorred, being a long-time country resident, and recently retired. But it was the venue chosen by the journalist I had arranged for Earl to meet.
A front-page story and a major media investigation into his case is something Earl wanted to expose the injustice (the “fraud”, as he put it) which happened to him. After 27 years of fighting for truth and fairness, he wanted to change the system which had mercilessly crushed him. He had recently met a young couple he related to, who were experiencing some of the same problems he’d had, and he felt increased urgency to expose injustices and get the system fixed. So others wouldn’t suffer like he and his family.
In a nutshell, Earl’s case was this: he bought a new home, found construction defects in it, asked the Tarion Warranty Corporation to fix it under the government’s warranty, but after years of legal wrangling it was decided Earl was the builder since he’d supplied more than 25% of the overall value of the home. Even if the home had been under warranty, he was told he was out of time in reporting defects. No coverage. A dentist by profession, the law decided he was a builder.
He once described it to me his way: if you buy a new home and install a 24-karat gold toilet in it, you’re the builder because you’ve contributed more than 25% of the overall value of the home. This “legal test”, which once bore his name, the Shuman Test, seems absurd to most of us as laypeople, like arguing what the definition of “is” is.
The wrong-doers in his case walked away scot free, the warranty corporation sided with the builder, leaving Earl and his family with years of anguish, heavy legal costs, and construction defects. In an excessively harsh punishment, he told me he’d spent a week in jail for refusing to pay Tarion’s legal fees.
He found crucial parts of his hearing missing from the official record with no credible explanation, the case law he found in a confused and contradictory state, and aggressive backroom legal strategies were used to defeat the consumer protection intention of the “Act”, the “Ontario New Home Warranties Plan Act” (ONHWPA).
For 27 years of his life, he fought to expose what most of us would see as absurdities and injustices.
It’s hard to hear Earl’s story and not be shocked that this could happen in Ontario. He made a presentation to a packed media room at Queen’s Park in December, 2014, and attendees came away shaking their heads in disgust at how consumer protection legislation could go so terribly wrong. Tarion is the government-appointed regulator and licensor of builders, and Earl rightly looked to this authority for consumer protection, fairness, and justice.
I remember saying to him, it sounds like we’re living in Russia or something, how could this happen in Ontario? No, its different in Russia, he replied, they don’t tell you there it’s a democracy.
For the meeting with the journalist, Earl had painstakingly prepared a detailed timeline of events relating to his case on a large scroll the size of a coffee table, all meticulously hand-written like a Da Vinci scientific manuscript. Under all the order and detail, he was quietly seething with rage.
That’s perhaps why some people would dismiss Earl and break off contact. He was mad as h..ll, had every right to be, and wasn’t going to take it any more. His take-no-prisoners, uncompromising manner could scare away people who might have helped. Might have. But the months of research, high cost, and legal firewalls required to do a series of investigative articles into this complex, lengthy subject must have deterred most journalists, and their short-staffed, cash-strapped organizations. Go see the movie “Spotlight”, I told him, and you’ll see how tough it is for the media to take on the big bear subjects.
Sadly for most of us, being right and being able to prove you’re right in court, are two different things. This is the legal business, not the justice business, we’re told. But despite all these roadblocks, Earl still believed in the power of the media to expose injustices and get broken systems fixed. He inspired many of us as volunteer consumer advocates, and kept his faith in justice and the press. But he got little of either.
These are important values we’d like to continue to believe in. On this 1st anniversary of Earl’s passing, I want to thank his family for their tireless and lonely work to expose what happened to them, which hopefully will one day help new home buyers.
Part of the recent review of Tarion by Justice Douglas Cunningham in March 2017, with it’s 37 recommendations for major reform, are partly due to Earl’s and his wife Krista’s work over the last 27 years.
It’s fitting that a memorial scholarship in journalism now bears his name, as opposed to the legal test which crushed and humiliated him for so many years.
Sadly, the light went out last May. We hope to hold a candle to his work, and keep believing in the power of the press to keep the big guys honest.