principles are designed to build better communities
Winnipeg Real Estate News
May 28, 2004
All the candidates running during the upcoming federal general election and provincial and municipal byelections will be asked to endorse the five principles of Quality of Life said Lorne Weiss, chairman of the Manitoba Real Estate Association’s political action committee.
It will be the first political test for the Quality of Life principles since they were adopted by the Manitoba Real Estate Association on behalf of organized real estate in the province and endorsed by the Winnipeg Real Estate Board. The WREB will be assisting by contacting the candidates running within the city boundaries.
“As organized real estate in Manitoba, we will support and endorse those candidates who embrace Quality of Life principles,” added Weiss.
Quality of Life is a highly-successful community-oriented program first introduced in Washington state by local realtors.
The principles of Quality of Life are:
- Insuring economic vitality
- Providing housing opportunities
- Preserving the environment
- Protecting property owners
- Building better communities.
“Quality of Life is a benchmark that we use to judge our initiatives,” Weiss said. “We will judge the positive or negative impact an initiative will have on Manitoba.”
Weiss said the adoption of Quality of Life brings about a dramatic change in organized real estate. “We will also actually be taking an active role in the political process by using Quality of Life to support and evaluate elected officials.
The Washington Association of Realtors has already judged politicians under Quality of Life. Politicians sign on to the principles and then are issued report cards on their compliance during their term in office.
The Washington project provides public policy makers with the research and public preferences they need to make decisions about the state’s future, Cheryl Ferrier, a past-president of the Washington Association of Realtors, wrote in The Herald, an Everett, Washington-based newspaper.
In Washington, realtors were able to persuade policy makers that the state’s Growth Management Act should also include economic growth as well as land use. “Now economic growth won’t be an afterthought,” Mike Flynn, the association’s vice-president, told The Herald.
By adapting the principles of Quality of Life, we are proving our commitment is broader than the real estate industry.” Weiss explained.
The WREB had attempted to organize a mayoral forum as it has done in past years, but found that the time constraints and other commitments by candidates made it impossible to organize the event.
The WREB said it will be (organizing) a mayoralty forum for the 2006 civic elections.