News from CGA-Canada
FROM: MAR-APR 2003 ISSUE
Guy Legault Departs CGA-Canada
CGA-Canada President and COO Guy Legault, B.Sc., MBA, CAE, FCGA, will be leaving the Association to become president and CEO of the Canadian Payments Association. The Ottawa-based Canadian Payments Association is the organization responsible for the operation of national systems for clearing and settlement of payments through the Bank of Canada.
"While this is an excellent opportunity for Guy and his family, CGA-Canada and the CGA designation, as a whole, will be losing a tireless champion and advocate," says CGA-Canada Chair and CEO Michel Guindon, PhD, FCGA. "In the seven-and-a-half years Guy has been at the helm of CGA-Canada, his list of accomplishments is impressive."
Those accomplishments include a renewed vision and strategic plan for the Association, the revisions of the Association's Act of Incorporation, By-Laws and Affiliation Agreement, increased communication and collaboration both internally and with the provincial and territorial associations, increased visibility both nationally and internationally, and the recent favourable Agreement on Internal Trade panel decision. Legault will leave the Association at the end of March.
"I will miss CGA-Canada very much, especially the people I've worked with over the years. However, this is an exciting opportunity that I am very much looking forward to," says Legault. "There are some challenges ahead for CGA-Canada and I am convinced the Association is in good shape to face those challenges successfully."
A Board selection committee has been established under the leadership of former CGA-Canada Chair Sylvie Voghel, B.Sc., FCGA, which, with the assistance of a national executive recruitment firm, will conduct a search for candidates to replace Legault. A final decision on the candidate will be made by the CGA-Canada Board of Directors.
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Recruitment Underway at Laurentian and SAIT
Recruitment is underway for September admission into the distance education undergraduate programs offered through the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) and Laurentian University in partnership with CGA-Canada. For students who require a bachelor degree to complete their CGA requirements, these programs offer a convenient, accessible and affordable option for attaining a degree concurrent with their CGA studies.
The SAIT partnership offers students in the CGA Program of Professional Studies a Bachelor of Applied Business Administration with a major in Accounting and Information Technology. The program enables students to add information technology skills and management training to their professional accounting designation, providing a combination of skills that is very much in demand.
The Laurentian University partnership is an online Honours Bachelor of Commerce program being offered in September for the first time. It is an ideal program for students interested in developing a strong foundation of contemporary core business and management skills.
Applications and more information can be obtained from your provincial CGA association or from the schools' respective Web sites at www.cga-saitdegree.ca or cga.laurentian.ca.
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Don Drummond Addresses Government Policy Challenges
Eliminating the deficit has not made the policy challenges any easier for the federal government. If anything, the government's spending choices are becoming even more difficult. That was the central message behind a lively presentation by Don Drummond, senior vice-president and chief economist of the TD Bank Financial Group, who was the featured speaker at CGA-Canada's Economic News Luncheon on January 22.
In almost 23 years at senior levels of the federal Department of Finance, Drummond played a large role in developing federal budgets. He shared that knowledge of the process and presented a wealth of statistics to illustrate the conflicting pressures faced by governments today. For example, will the significant needs of our health care system overshadow all other priorities? Investment in infrastructure, he said, was one of those priorities being overshadowed. And while balancing those priorities, is it also possible to reduce the tax burden of Canadians?
Although much of the discussion dealt with the federal budget, Drummond pointed out that all three levels of government face similar pressures. Will the three levels of government have the foresight, he wondered, to take the difficult steps necessary to forge a positive agenda for the economy for the benefit of all Canadians? Drummond suggested the answer is a three-pronged approach: contain health care spending growth, shed lower priority spending and shift the tax burden.
The presentation was the third in the 2002-03 series of Economic News Luncheons, presented in Ottawa by CGA-Canada at the National Press Club in order to stimulate debate on public policy issues. Roughly 60 guests braved the almost –40-degree weather to attend the event, including a number of media representatives. Information on this and other Economic News Luncheons is available on the CGA-Canada Web site.
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John Carpenter to Head International Financial Planning Standards Board
John S. Carpenter, FCGA, Executive Director and CEO of CGA-Alberta, is the first chairman of the new Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB), an international organization established to develop and regulate the financial planning profession globally.
"The need for well-trained, knowledgeable, ethical financial planners is apparent in these difficult times. The further development of global standards for certified financial planners is good news for investors," says Carpenter.
The FPSB will oversee the development of certified financial planner (CFP) certification by establishing, maintaining and enforcing consistent standards for certified financial planners around the world. The FPSB grows out of efforts by the International CFP Council, which has member organizations in 19 countries, including Canada. There are 72,000 certified financial planners worldwide.
John Carpenter is past-chair of the Canadian CFP affiliate, the Financial Planners Standards Council. He was a Canadian delegate to the international CFP council from 2000 to 2002, chaired its finance committee from 2001 to 2002, and was a member of the CFP board/international CFP council joint task force working on international restructuring.
"As a certified general accountant, I work to protect and advance the interests of clients, investors and the general public by promoting high standards of education, experience and ethics for CGAs, as well as international accounting standards," says Carpenter. "Developing strong international standards for financial planners is a natural extension of that work."
CGA-Canada is one of seven partner organizations in the Financial Planners Standards Council.
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The New CGA-Hong Kong Board
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CGA-Hong Kong's 2003 Board of Directors was elected in November.
From left, the directors are Simon Ho (Second Vice-President), Peter Fok, Alex Chan, Stephen Ho, Jeffery Cheung, K.H. Lau, William Tin, Helen Kwok, Charles Lau (First Vice-President), Alac Ho and Raymond Yeung (President). |
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Member Benefits
The Benefits of Advocacy
One of the most important member benefits you receive from CGA-Canada is its advocacy program. CGA-Canada actively pursues an ambitious agenda to advance your interests by educating business and industry leaders, legislators and the general public about the ways in which certified general accountants are serving the global accounting community.
Advocacy activities include appearing before government bodies such as the Canadian Senate, presenting opinions and papers to bodies such as the Accounting Standards Oversight Council and the International Federation of Accountants Council (IFAC), conducting opinion polls to determine the public mood on accounting-related issues, and promoting by means of position papers our position on issues concerning the profession, such as GAAS and GAAP.
CGA-Canada also promotes co-operative professional relationships with other accounting associations, both nationally and internationally.
To ensure the designation's international profile, CGA-Canada continues to participate actively in the initiatives and governance of international accounting bodies. CGA-Canada is a founding member of the Inter-national Federation of Accountants Council (IFAC). Currently, it has members on the IFAC education and public sector committees and the Small and Medium Practices Task Force.
CGA-Canada is also a member of several other accounting bodies that represent the interest of specific regions or groups — the Confederation of Asian and Pacific Accountants (CAPA), the Fédération internationale des experts-comptables francophones (FIDEF), the Inter-american Accounting Association (IAA), and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of the Caribbean (ICAC). Just recently, Jean Précourt, FCGA, was named vice-president of FIDEF. Nationally, CGA-Canada is represented on the Accounting Standards Oversight Council and also sits on the Financial Planners Standards Council (FPSC) Board.
So you can see that advocacy is an important member benefit as it ensures that your Association maintains a well-respected voice in the accounting community and beyond.
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