News from CGA-Canada
FROM:
MAR-APR 2006 ISSUE
UBC Ethics Professor Granted Honorary CGA Membership
CGA-Canada has granted Honorary Membership to Dr. Michael McDonald, Maurice Young Chair of Applied Ethics at the University of
British Columbia (UBC). Honorary Membership is granted to recognize significant service to the association by someone who is not a CGA.
Dr. McDonald is only the sixth person to receive this recognition since it was created in 1982.
Dr. McDonald was the founding director of the
W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics at UBC and has served as a consultant to
CGA-Canada since 1991. He was instrumental in helping the association develop an integrated approach to ethics education that has since become one of the hallmarks of the CGA Program of Professional Studies.
Dr. McDonald has worked closely with the CGA curriculum development team over the years to incorporate ethics content into course materials. He compiled and edited the
Ethics Readings Handbook, an essential resource for students in the CGA program, and recently revised the handbook in an online format to incorporate audiovisual and interactive elements.
"CGA-Canada has the leading model of ethics education among professional education programs," says
Anthony Ariganello, FCGA, CPA (Delaware), President and CEO of
CGA-Canada. "Our emphasis on ethics is one of the reasons that CGAs continue to rise to positions of leadership and trust in the business world.
Dr. McDonald's contribution to the association's ethics education has been outstanding."
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New Government Expected to be Open to Input
A new government in Ottawa, open to new ideas and input, may present opportunities for
CGA-Canada to influence government policy in areas of interest.
In the months following the 2004 election,
CGA-Canada took measures to communicate its policy concerns and consolidate new relationships with key Conservatives, in addition to maintaining relationships with the Liberal government. As a result, some of the new Conservative cabinet ministers are already familiar with
CGA-Canada and its views.
CGAs will be well represented within the ranks of both the government and the official opposition. Five CGAs were elected to serve in the House of Commons: Michael Allen (Conservative, Tobique-Mactaquac), Serge Cardin (Bloc Québécois, Sherbrooke), Massimo Pacetti (Liberal, Saint-Léonard/
Saint-Michel), Yasmin Ratansi (Liberal, Don Valley East), and John Williams (Conservative, Edmonton-St. Albert). Cardin, Pacetti, Ratansi, and Williams were all incumbents, Allen is a
first-time MP.
The new government will want to build on the momentum from the campaign and deliver a budget as soon as possible. (At press time, a date for the budget had not yet been announced.) As part of the 2005
pre-budget consultations conducted by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance,
CGA-Canada recommended many initiatives common to the Conservatives' platform. Among the similarities, the Conservative Party promised to:
- introduce a dividend tax credit;
- reduce corporate tax (rate will fall from
21 per cent to
19 per cent by 2010);
- eliminate business surtax
(January 1, 2008);
- eradicate the federal capital tax;
- raise the threshold for small business tax rate from $300,000 to $400,000;
- reduce taxes for small business.
The Conservative platform did not address internal trade issues, the Canadian Public Accountability Board and other accounting related issues. But the government is expected to introduce the
Federal Accountability Act and related legislation that may be of interest to accountants, and to which
CGA-Canada will want to respond. The Government will also need to conduct the
five-year legislated review of the Canada Revenue Agency and re-introduce the
Not-for-Profit Act, legislation that, in its initial form, had implications for CGAs.
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CGA Voices Heard in Election
Throughout the election, many CGAs took an active role in the democratic process by writing to candidates, voicing their views in the media, actively campaigning or volunteering their services for a campaign, or in the case of six CGAs, actually running for office. Five of the six were elected to the House of Commons.
CGA-Canada created an election Web site to provide a range of tools and resources for CGAs and the public to use to play an active role in the election. The site included an election primer, questions for candidates,
CGA-Canada's positions on issues of interest,
e-mail updates and other features. It also included an open letter to all the party leaders from
CGA-Canada President and CEO
Anthony Ariganello, in which he stressed the importance of responsible leadership. The CGA letter focused on four priorities for the new government: trust and accountability, fiscal prudence, competitive taxation, and planning for the future.
"Canadians want a government that will lead confidently, with wisdom, resolve, and integrity," Ariganello wrote. "They want leadership and accountability to start at the top, so while parliamentarians, ethics commissioners, and judicial investigators all have an important role to play, it is you, our party leaders, who must set the example. We urge you to rise to the occasion by committing unequivocally to the principle of ministerial and parliamentary accountability."
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Pension Report Generates Impact
CGA-Canada's latest research report on the financial status of Canada's defined benefit pension plans raised the level of discussion surrounding the pension funding issue.
The State of Defined Benefit Plans in Canada: An Update was launched on
November 8, 2005, updating results of the association's 2004 pension report.
The report received widespread media coverage, with stories appearing in
The Globe and Mail,
The Toronto Star, and 11 CanWest newspapers, among others. Canadian Press also filed six stories and there was significant coverage in national broadcast media. Rock Lefebvre,
CGA-Canada'sVice-President of Research and Standards, was interviewed in depth by CBC radio. The total accumulated audience of the media reports was estimated to be 8,018,792 people.
On November 9, 2005, David Dodge, Governor of the Bank of Canada, delivered a widely reported speech in Montreal on the importance of pension plans in which he corroborated many of the findings and conclusions of the CGA report. The Dodge speech sparked another round of media stories that referenced the CGA research.
The original CGA-Canada research report estimated that at the end of 2003, defined benefit (DB) pension plans were in a
$160 billion deficit position. The updated report indicates the deficit figure has grown to
$190 billion. To download a free copy of both reports or to request a printed version, visit the
CGA-Canada web site at
www.cga-online.org/canada.
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CGA Sponsors The Power Within
In March, CGA associations in B.C. and Ontario were able to promote the designation through a sponsorship of The Power Within events, featuring former U.S. President William Jefferson Clinton, seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, and former CEO of Sony Entertainment Peter Guber. The events, which took place in Ottawa and Vancouver on
March 6 and 10, offered a unique strategic opportunity to promote the CGA brand to a
high-profile market of key business decision makers. For more information on this series of events visit
www.powerwithin.com.
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AcSB Opts for IFRS
Canada will adopt International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for Canadian publicly accountable entities, eventually replacing Canadian Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), a move that
CGA-Canada has strongly advocated.
Adoption of IFRS is a key element of Canada's Accounting Standards Board's (AcSB) new strategic plan, ratified on
January 10, 2006. The plan details separate financial reporting approaches for public companies, private companies and
not-for-profit organizations. At this time, the adoption of IFRS will impact only public companies and will require a transition period of approximately five years.
CGA-Canada has led the movement to adopt IFRS in Canada since the publication of a 1999
CGA-Canada research report.
The Case for International Accounting Standards in Canada by
Alan J. Richardson and Ian
R. Hutchinson, concluded that Canada would be well served by adopting International Accounting Standards (the predecessors to IFRS) as the domestic standards.
CGA-Canada reaffirmed that position on July 29, 2005, in a response to the AcSB's invitation to comment on its draft strategic plan.
CGA-Canada also endorsed the AcSB proposal to apply a different set of standards to different categories of reporting entities, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
The final strategic plan document is scheduled to be published by the AcSB by
March 31, 2006, and will be available at
www.acsbcanada.org. For more background, see the
March-April 2005 issue of
CGA Magazine for an interview with AcSB Chair
Paul Cherry, or read the
CGA-Canada response to the draft strategic plan at
www.cga-online.org/canada under Exposure Draft Responses in the Advocacy and Research section of the site.
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CGA Economic Luncheons Draw Crowds
The first two CGA Economic News Luncheons of the
2005-06 season attracted larger than expected audiences to hear an analysis of the economic platforms of Canada's political parties during the recent election campaign and a global economic forecast for 2006.
Nancy Hughes Anthony, president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said Canada's major political parties failed to address the needs and expectations of Canadian business during the election campaign.
"It is unacceptable, given the stakes, that very serious issues surrounding the health of the economy have, so far in this campaign, been largely ignored by the political parties," Hughes Anthony told the CGA audience on
January 10, less than two weeks before the election. She also expressed concern about the rising level of government spending prior to the election and in the major party platforms during the campaign.
Sherry Cooper, global economic strategist and executive
vice-president of BMO Financial Group, told a luncheon on
November 29 that the global economic outlook for 2006 remains strong. But she cautioned the threat of terrorism and a
world-wide influenza pandemic could change that outlook. Cooper also predicted the Canadian economy would grow
2.8 per cent in 2006.
CGA-Canada's Economic News Luncheons provide a forum for leading figures in Canadian politics, industry, and finance to speak out on a wide range of issues that affect CGAs and the public at large. They are held at the National Press Club in Ottawa. Recently-retired Ontario Securities Commission Chairman David Brown is scheduled to speak on
March 15. For information on upcoming luncheons or past presentations, go to the Events page of the Media Centre section on
CGA-Canada's Web site at
www.cga-online.org/canada.
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CGA-Canada Board Adopts New Strategic Plan
The CGA-Canada Board of Directors approved new strategic goals and a strategic plan for the Association at its
December 10, 2005, Board meeting in Toronto. The strategic plan document is currently being prepared for publication and a summary will be included in the
May-June 2006 issue of
CGA Magazine.
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| Correction Jackie Poirier, FCGA, is Regional Director of Human Resources with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She has been in her current position since April 2005. Incorrect information appeared in News from
CGA-Canada, November-December 2005. We sincerely regret the error.
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