Question:
RECO recently published a comment to the effect that registrants could advertise a specialty. I thought this was against the law in Ontario?
Answer:
REBBA, 2002 used to prevent the use of the term “specialty”. The problem was that the specific provisions were not proclaimed in force. Those provisions expired on 31 March 2016 without proclamation.
Consequently, while there was an intention to have a rule preventing the use of the term “specialty”, it really never became law, and now, it’s gone. So, it’s allowed at this point from 1 April 2016 forward. RECO does not have jurisdiction to approve its use, but, it does have jurisdiction to discipline a registrant for its “improper use”.
Thus, the issue would be: is there any evidence available to support the use of the term “specialist”. In a professional context the term specialist is comprised of two components:
1) education, and
2) experience.
If you have both, then you” may” be fine, but there’s no one out there handing out credentials. However, under the Code of Ethics it would appear that you might only require either education OR experience, not both. So, take a course, and you are “good to go”.
Brian Madigan LL.B., Broker