NDP demands action for the iPro Realty fiasco, one of the biggest failures in Ontario’s real estate history

QUEEN’S PARK – Shadow Minister for Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement with responsibility for Auto Insurance Reform, MPP Tom Rakocevic (Humber River–Black Creek), is demanding urgent action following the iPro Realty scandal, where millions went missing from brokerage trust accounts and the Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) failed to act.

“What happened at RECO is the biggest regulatory failure in Ontario’s real estate sector,” said Rakocevic. “Buying a home is truly one of the biggest investment people can make in their lives and Ontarians deserve confidence that their regulator will protect them. Right now, that confidence has been shaken. The regulator was unable or unwilling to safeguard the public interest, and the government looked the other way.”

Despite warnings from the Auditor General in 2022 about RECO's oversight of trust accounts, key recommendations remain outstanding. What happened with iPro Realty makes these weaknesses impossible to ignore.

The Ontario NDP is calling for the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery to:

• Immediately implement the Auditor General’s outstanding recommendations on RECO with clear timelines.
• Establish strong, measurable performance standards to hold RECO accountable.
• Require RECO to report irregularities in brokerage trust accounts directly to law enforcement and the public in a timely manner to ensure early intervention.
• Conduct an independent audit and investigation into the scandal, overseen by the Ministry, not RECO’s board, and make the results public.

“Consumers deserve to know their government is fighting for them. We need real accountability, real transparency, and real protections to restore public trust.”