The Ontario REALTOR® Wellness Program (ORWP) was passed today by the OREA Assembly at OREA's Special General Meeting.
Technically speaking, the motion to amend OREA's Bylaws was defeated 73-59, which means that the Program will go ahead as initially planned.
The ORWP was originally put to the Assembly on June 20th, 2023, where it was approved with nearly 80% of the delegates voting in its favour. After that vote, there was some pushback from the membership about certain aspects of the program, particularly that it was mandatory for all 96,000 Ontario REALTORS®. A subset of OREA's Member Boards, representing at least 10% of the Assembly votes, called for a Special General Meeting, as this is one of their rights under the Not-For-Profit Corporations Act.
While the Member Boards sought amendments to specific aspects of the program, the vote at today's meeting was ultimately a "yes or no" vote on the program as a whole.
Votes were cast by the OREA Assembly, made up of REALTOR® representatives from OREA's 31 Member Boards. Each Member Board was allocated a certain number of votes based on its membership size.
LSTAR sent three REALTOR® representatives to the meeting: LSTAR's Chair, Chair-Elect and Past Chair. They carried five votes between them.
LSTAR's representatives cast their votes informed by:
- The work of the ORWP Task Force;
- The ORWP information shared by OREA;
- The data from the first Member survey in June (47% in favour, 53% opposed, with 279 responses);
- The data from the Framework survey, in partnership with several other Ontario Member Boards, from November (30% in favour, 54% opposed, 10% undecided and 5% other with a total of 781 responses); and
- Our ongoing conversations with Members at the LSTAR Town Halls and one-on-one.
After taking all of these into account, LSTAR's representatives voted as agreed by the whole Board of Directors: two (2) in favour of the amendments, two (2) opposed and one (1) abstention, to reflect the diversity of viewpoints on the ORWP amongst the membership.
The ORWP will become a benefit available to all Ontario REALTORS®, effective January 1st, 2024. All OREA Members will pay the same regardless of age. There will be no medical tests or questionnaires required in order to participate in the Program.
Under the Program, the Standard Plan includes Life Insurance, Critical Illness Insurance, Accidental Death & Dismemberment Insurance (AD&D), healthcare including prescription drugs, paramedical practitioners (massage therapy, chiropractic care, etc.), medical services and supplies (cast, orthotics, etc.), accidental dental, and ambulance, along with Out-of-Country Emergency Medical Travel Insurance, and a Member Virtual Care and Mental Health Program.
The premium for the Standard Plan will be $659.88 annually and will form part of the OREA Dues, bringing the total annual OREA Dues to $769.88 per Member.
Even though the Program takes effect on January 1st, 2024, you won't need to pay the full amount at the beginning of the new year, as LSTAR will collect the OREA dues in installments. We will provide more guidance on the enrollment and billing process, the new dues payable for 2024, and more in the coming weeks.
If you have general questions about the program, please visit OREA's updated frequently asked questions page on their website, which covers the most common concerns:
https://www.orea.com/resources/REALTOR-Wellness-Program (scroll to the bottom).
If you have specific concerns about coverage and coordinating this plan with other insurance plans (spousal for instance), we recommend that you email the Program's Administrator at OREA directly via ProgramAdministrator [at] orwp.ca (ProgramAdministrator[at]orwp[dot]ca).
