Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada’s headquarters are seen in Toronto, on Oct. 6, 2023.Cole Burston/The Canadian Press
Kevin Dancey, C.M., FCPA, FCA is the former CEO of the International Federation Of Accountants (IFAC), former president and CEO of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants and CPA Canada, and former senior partner and CEO of PwC Canada.
Almost one year ago Ontario and Quebec regulatory bodies for Chartered Professional Accountants signalled their intention to exit their collaborative working relationship with the national body, CPA Canada.
This came about as they wanted more control over and representation on CPA Canada; in my view, the provincial bodies have been effectively trying to turn it into a service centre under their control.
All the while CPAs have been provided with little information, and no rationale or business case from the two provincial regulators.
These self-serving provincial actions have been a waste of time and resources. Does any Ontario CPA know how much your provincial body has spent on lawyers and consultants; on negotiating non-disclosure agreements for a revolving staff complement; or on paying their president and CEO, Carol Wilding, to wreak this havoc?
And Quebec’s decision to keep the current CPA Canada fee of $400 a member on dues going forward for its own account is unconscionable.
Unification was supposed to yield a fiscal dividend, not fiscal mismanagement.
Despite these problems, it’s a good time to ask if the way forward is any clearer. I do believe it is, and in a good way.
In contrast to the provincial regulators’ failure to engage meaningfully with their membership, CPA Canada understands its accountability to members and has consulted widely. These consultations have overwhelmingly reinforced the need for a strong national body.
CPA Canada will remain relevant even without the Ontario and Quebec bodies. It will continue to have many key responsibilities, including binding our great profession together, supporting the setting of accountancy, sustainability and assurance standards, developing national programs (certification exam and tax training), and serving as the voice of the profession domestically and internationally.
It’s a brave new era of international trade, and Canada is unprepared for it
CPA Canada is in good hands. Having spent time internationally as CEO of the International Federation of Accountants, I can assure everyone that other countries will only deal with a national body in Canada. They won’t deal with a provincial regulator.
CPA Canada’s global connectivity is important on many levels. At a macro level, our profession is the most globally connected one, and our national body needs to be aware of and capitalize on developments elsewhere. At a micro level, Canadian CPAs’ global mobility is dependent on CPA Canada negotiating and maintaining Mutual Recognition Agreements with other national accountancy bodies.
With the Ontario and Quebec bodies leaving, the end result won’t reflect the way things have historically been sorted out in the Canadian federation. Not terribly surprising as actions have consequences and given the personalities involved it’s impossible to unscramble this omelette. It would be naive to think otherwise.
The good news is that CPA Canada and the other provincial accountancy bodies will still likely have a collaborative working relationship. CPA Canada will not be subject to any undue influence from the Ontario and Quebec regulators. And, as announced by CPA Canada, members in Ontario and Quebec, who would otherwise be excluded from the national body, can choose to voluntarily remain part of CPA Canada.
Given the total disregard of member views demonstrated by the Ontario and Quebec regulators over the past year, being part of a national body that is solely focused on their support and progress has never been more important.
There are still numerous issues to clarify, such as Ontario and Quebec CPAs’ access to national accountancy and assurance standards and how students in those provinces will participate in the national certification exam.
Last November, the two provincial bodies said this would be seamless, but with less than four months until they exit current arrangements, we are still awaiting details. Hopefully, sane heads will prevail, but sanity would have dictated not going down this road in the first place.
Bottom line?
Despite this distraction and waste of time and resources, the Canadian CPA profession has never been in a better spot. The opportunities, challenges and, indeed, public interest responsibilities of our profession have never been greater. The 220,000 Canadian CPAs know this.
Hopefully, our leaders will focus on these more important issues as we move past this unfortunate, needless and forgettable internal squabble.