Montreal, November 19, 2007 – Although it agrees with the objective of Bill 46, which is intended to give all Quebec’s professional accountants full rights to practice public accounting in accordance with the decision of the special task force formed pursuant to the Agreement on internal trade (AIT), the Ordre des comptables en management accrédités du Québec (CMA) is vigorously opposed to the approach adopted by the government to achieve that objective. In fact, rather than defining public accounting within the Professional Code, which is a neutral platform, the Quebec government has chosen to use the Chartered Accountants Act, thereby subordinating CMAs to CAs.
“While we are quite pleased at the government’s willingness to break the monopoly of chartered accountants on public accounting and finally put Quebec in step with all the other Canadian provinces in this respect, we are not at all pleased with the way it has gone about this,” declared the President of the Bureau of the CMA Order, Richard Désy, FCMA. “Since from now on, three accounting orders will supervise the practice of public accounting, it is to say the least surprising and contrary to all logic that the government insists on defining public accounting within the Chartered Accountants Act, just as it did last year in Bill 64 that died on the order paper.”
In fact, the approach taken by the government challenges the very foundations of Quebec’s professional system. That system is based on the principles of self-management, self-regulation and autonomy for each profession, it functions harmoniously and is the envy of Canada’s other provinces. “While the government has not in any way announced its intention to change the system, that is exactly what Bill 46 would do. What that means is a decision that today impacts the 45 orders, consisting of 330,000 Quebec professionals or about 8% of the workforce,” Mr. Désy added.
The CMA Order is still waiting for the government and the other two accounting orders to offer even the slightest argument to justify their rejection of the proposals to make the bill acceptable to all parties concerned that it has defended for nearly a year and is therefore persisting in its determined efforts to convince the government to opt for a neutral legislative framework that is fair for all professionals concerned and respects the public interest.
The Ordre des comptables en management accrédités du Québec consists of more than 8,400 certified members and candidates to the profession. CMAs create value within organizations using an integrated and systematic approach to strategic and financial management.
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Source: Quebec CMA Order
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Ordre des comptables en management accrédités du Québec
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