The Alberta government and the Auctioneers’ Association of Alberta are asking the public for help as they attempt to improve regulations governing auctioneers and auctions.
Auctioneer Ron Sekura said the 213 licensed auction businesses in Alberta have no significant issues, but they want to ensure that regulations governing the industry are in line with modern auction businesses.
“It’s small tweaking of the regulations,” said Sekura, past president of the Auctioneers’ Association of Alberta.
The last review of public auction regulations was conducted in 2005.
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“There is a pile of regulations. We’re constantly working with government to improve the whole industry,” he said.
Cam Traynor with Service Alberta, the department in charge of auctions, hoped the discussion paper will gather input from the public and industry to help the government make policy decisions.
One of the recommended changes is that auctioneers be licensed as well as auction businesses.
Sekura said such a move would bring more professionalism to the industry.
Another change would be to increase the amount of training auctioneers receive from a recognized auction course to 80 hours of schooling.
“We want to make sure no one is slipping through the cracks,” he said.
Also under review are how trust accounts work, private and members-only auctions, bidding practices and final bids.
Sekura said there are few complaints and problems in the industry, considering the thousands of auction sales and millions of dollars of transactions that take place each year in Alberta.
“It’s a very strong industry,” he said.
“It’s such a public, transparent business, it keeps everybody doing the best job they can. You can’t stand in front of hundreds of people and get away with things…. As an association we want to keep making it strong, transparent and growing.”
The deadline for providing comments to the discussion paper is Oct. 8.
