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Over the past few years I have twice signed up for the BC real estate licensing course and had to prove to them that I could speak English as there is an English language proficiency requirement. In the past you could submit your grade 12 diploma and that was it.
I had done that and satisfied the requirement for the first time I took the course and it carried over to the second time. As I was wasn’t able to write the exam the previous times I had signed up for the course for the third time paying the $1150 fee each time. This time though I was told that the English language proficiency requirement had changed as of September 2017 and they can no longer except a grade 12 diploma as proof, so even though I had already satisfied it for the two previous occasions I now have to take a course to be able to prove to them that I can speak English. If that isn’t bad enough the only exemptions are if you held a real estate licence from another Province (my current BC insurance licence doesn’t count) or if you have a bachelors degree, so I guess they’re saying that only people with a bachelor degree can speak English, what an insult!
Also, the company that produces the test at cost of $250 is not surprisingly owned by the same organization that is making you take the test. So it doesn’t matter that you were born and raised in Canada, lived here for 63 years, have been a police officer, graduated high school, have a University management certificate, held an insurance license for 20 years and have an insurance Industry CIP designation, I still have to prove to them (at a cost of $250) that I can speak English.
This is not only an absolutely blatant money grab, it’s as discriminatory as discrimination can be. It’s totally insulting that a born and raised Canadian be treated with this kind of disrespect and they should not be allowed to get away with it. Somebody who has some power really needs to make them accountable or at the very least make them justify it and also make the rest of the population aware of this.
I have withdrawn from the course and asked for a full refund as I will not subject myself to this kind of nonsense and disrespect, they should be ashamed of themselves!
Keith Quesnelle
