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Nearly five years after real estate management company Epic Alliance collapsed, the fallout is now putting Saskatchewan’s real estate regulatory system under scrutiny.
The Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority says a third party will review the province’s real estate regulatory framework after the Saskatchewan Realtors Association raised concerns about disciplinary decisions involving two agents who handled transactions connected to Epic Alliance.
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The Saskatoon-based real estate investment group raised roughly $211 million from investors before collapsing in 2022 with few assets remaining.
A court-appointed inspector later found incomplete financial records and missing servers made it impossible to provide a complete accounting of the group’s business and financial affairs.
Chris Guérette, CEO of the Saskatchewan Realtors Association, said the Epic Alliance case has been playing out for years and the latest disciplinary decisions raised questions about whether the province’s regulatory system needs to change.
“Whether it be culture, systematic in their systems, rules, is it the legislation? Is it governance at the top?” Guérette said. “Those are all very fair questions to ask.”
The Saskatchewan Real Estate Commission recently disciplined agents Paul Chavady and Jerry Hallgrimson following an investigation into their handling of transactions connected to Epic Alliance.
Both received six-month suspensions, monetary penalties and additional conditions.
Guérette said the association was particularly concerned about the length of the process and arrangements allowing the suspensions to be served at different times.
“From a member of the public looking at that, that’s a little bit hard to explain and hard to swallow,” she said.
The Saskatchewan Real Estate Commission has defended its handling of the case, calling the penalties its most punitive sanctions.
The commission said its investigation had to follow due process and be based on evidence, not public sentiment surrounding the broader Epic Alliance collapse. It said the evidence before it did not demonstrate criminality by the two agents.
The commission also said it welcomes feedback and review of Saskatchewan’s regulatory framework.
Chavady said in a written statement he accepts the commission’s findings that his work fell short of the professional standards expected of him, but stressed he and Hallgrimson were not part of Epic Alliance.
“We were not part of Epic Alliance and had no role in its operations or investment decisions,” Chavady said.
“Our role was administrative. We prepared the paperwork for deals the parties had already structured.”
Chavady said the buyers and Epic had already agreed on properties, prices, terms, conditions and financing before the agents became involved.
“The commission expected us to do more than that for the buyers, and I understand that expectation better today than I did then,” he said.
Asked what he would do differently today, Chavady said he would not participate in similar transactions.
“We believed at the time we were acting within the rules, but the outcome shows that wasn’t enough, and we’ve learned from it.”
The Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority oversees real estate regulation in Saskatchewan through the Superintendent of Real Estate, while the Saskatchewan Real Estate Commission administers registration, education and discipline for the industry.
Guérette said an independent review matters because it lets the system itself, not just individual agents’ actions, be examined.
“We’ve seen similar situations, maybe not of this scale, but yes, it’s timely that we get this done,” she said.
The Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority says the third-party review will examine the effectiveness of Saskatchewan’s real estate regulatory framework, identify potential gaps and opportunities for improvement and compare the province’s system with other Canadian jurisdictions.
For Guérette, the goal is not simply to revisit what happened with Epic Alliance, but to determine what Saskatchewan can learn from it.
“Our objective throughout this process has been a stronger regulatory system that protects Saskatchewan people and supports the trust consumers place in the members who uphold high professional standards every day,” she said.
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