Today, the Certified General Accountants Association of New Brunswick (CGA New Brunswick) has formally requested that a panel be constituted under the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) to help resolve the issue of access in Québec to public accounting for its members.
Certified General Accountants are prevented from providing public accounting services in Québec because of laws restricting that practice to Chartered Accountants. This long-standing inequity is at odds with virtually every other Canadian province and territory, where qualified CGAs have access to the practice of public accounting.
"Québec's unfair public accounting regime has existed for the last 50 years," said Anthony Ariganello, FCGA, President and CEO, CGA-Canada. "It's time this restrictive trade practice ends. CGAs are educated and trained to the same standard no matter where they live in Canada. CGAs conducting audits and assurance engagements do so to the same national standard as any accounting professional, including CAs."
John Hunter, FCGA, President, CGA New Brunswick, explained his association's request for a panel. "The Québec public accounting regulating regime is unfair in that it discriminates against all CGAs in Canada, but particularly our members in New Brunswick who work and live close to the Québec border," said Hunter.
"This is unfair and it puts CGAs at a competitive disadvantage for no justifiable reason," Hunter commented. "It also limits choices for Canadian businesses and individuals. Restricting the ability of CGAs from provinces such as New Brunswick from practicing in Québec is a barrier to mobility and, as such, is inconsistent with the AIT."
The AIT requires Québec and all provinces to remove barriers that restrict the movement of competent professionals from one province to another. As it relates to accountants, the AIT requires that a province provide access to public accounting for those who are qualified for this occupation in another Canadian jurisdiction, based on an objective assessment of their competence, without regard to how this competence was acquired.
There is an existing precedent for CGA New Brunswick's AIT challenge, based on those principles. In October 2001, an AIT panel concluded that Ontario's public accountant licensing regime unfairly denied CGAs from Manitoba the right to practice public accounting in Ontario.
The AIT provides a mechanism that allows a private party, such as the Certified General Accountants Association of New Brunswick, to challenge provincial laws that are inconsistent with the principles and provisions of the Agreement. This formal request for a panel is the next step in process initiated by CGA New Brunswick last year to resolve this dispute. "CGA New Brunswick makes this request reluctantly," noted Hunter.
Since Prince Edward Island enacted legislation in January 2005 that allows CGAs to practice public accounting, Québec is now the only province that has not acknowledged CGAs are competent to practice public accounting.
"Given the Government of Québec's firm commitment to improving interprovincial trade, we believed the issue could have been resolved without going to the costly and time-consuming route of litigation. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be the case," concluded Ariganello.
About CGA-Canada
CGA is the second-largest and fastest-growing accounting designation in the country. With a focus on integrity and ethics, and one of the highest education requirements in the profession, CGAs have become the country's accounting and business leaders, providing strategic counsel, financial leadership, and overall direction to all sectors of the Canadian economy.
The Certified General Accountants Association of Canada represents 62,000 CGAs and students in Canada, Bermuda, the Caribbean, Hong Kong, and China. The Association sets standards, develops and maintains education programs, publishes professional materials, advocates on public policy issues, and represents CGAs nationally and internationally.
For more information, please contact:
Carole Presseault
Vice-President, Government and Regulatory Affairs
Telephone: (613) 789-7771 x 222
Cell: (613) 796-0422
Email: cpresseault@cga-canada.org
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