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Dear OMVIC Registrant:
Attached to today's report is an
executive summary of OMVIC's
first business plan. As you can
see, your Board of Directors has
set a number of ambitious
targets for the board, members
and staff of OMVIC. We've tried
to set out clear priorities
which meet the needs of our
clients, with an aggressive
timetable for meeting our
objectives.
Our mandate focuses on consumer
protection, business leadership
and industry professionalism.
Our services include
registration activities,
enforcement, development of
professional standards,
promoting public awareness and
mediating complaints. We intend
to quickly launch a number of
special or ongoing initiatives
which will allow us to deliver
these services in new and better
ways. These initiatives include
beefing up our enforcement
capabilities, blitzing
curbsiders, regionalizing
services and endorsing a new
dealer certification course — to
name a few. Please take the time
to read our business plan and
feel free to let me know what
you think.
One of the day-to-day issues
which we intend to address is
the accuracy of the database
inherited from the ministry. We
currently have approximately
9,000 registered dealers and
18,000 salespersons appearing on
the Motor Vehicle Dealers
Act(MVDA) database. How many of
these are truly active? How many
are actually operating from
their registered premises? Which
salespersons are working for
which dealers? And, for that
matter, are all staff involved
in the buying and selling of
motor vehicles actually
registered under the MVDA?
In an effort to "clean-up" our
database, we need your help.
Over the course of the next
several weeks, we will be
sending each registered dealer a
list of the salespersons which,
according to our records, are
registered to your dealership.
Please use this opportunity to
update the records – yours and
ours. You should also use this
as an opportunity to review
whether all of your staff who
should be registered under the
MVDA are in fact registered. For
instance, it appears that a
surprising number of dealers
have not registered staff
working in business manager,
leasing manager or finance and
insurance (F&I)positions. This
leaves the dealer at some
considerable risk, since the
lack of registration means that
these key staff have not been
subject to the background checks
which are now required of each
and every registrant under the
MVDA. In addition, since these
individuals typically play a
significant role in the selling
process, the MVDA requires that
they be registered.
For our part, we have assigned
staff in various parts of the
province to visually inspect the
registered address of every
dealer in the province within
the next four months to ensure
that registrants are selling
from the right address, and that
lot, sign and premise
requirements are being met. To
date well over a thousand
inspections have been completed,
resulting in administrative
action against some four hundred
missing or "phantom" dealers.
As usual, your comments are
welcome and I look forward to
staying in touch.
Best regards,
Carl Compton,
Registrar,
Motor Vehicle Dealers Act
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