A UNIFIED ACCOUNTING PROFESSION
News
The vote is in!
The numbers are in and Alberta’s CGAs and CMAs have resoundingly voted to support the plan for unifying the profession in Alberta. Of our combined Alberta membership of 13,000, 70% of you participated in the unification vote; and 75% of those who voted supported the plan we presented to you.
We asked you for a mandate to proceed and you have provided it.
From here, we will follow the unification plan on which you voted and carry on discussions with our provincial affiliates as well as our Alberta CA colleagues. Our members have resolved to unite and we are appealing to everyone in the profession to join us. We are on the verge of a historic event!
The first step in making unification a reality (or entering the ‘Transition Stage’ in the language of our plan) is for our Boards to both undertake a final vote to go forward. We expect that to happen sometime in October. In the interim, we will have the referenced discussions, talk with our members to ensure we have accounted for all of the advice you provided, begin preparations for the “Unification Agency” referenced in the plan, talk to the Alberta government and assist anyone who can benefit from our experience moving forward.
There is an extraordinary amount of work to do but the outcome will be worth the effort. As always, we want to hear from you. We will keep you informed as we move forward and we thank you for your support.
Please see below chart for a detailed breakdown of the results:
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| Unification and plan | 73.3% | 76.4% | 75.1% |
| Unification but not plan | 5.5% | 2.8% | 3.9% |
| Total Unification Supporters | 78.7% | 79.2% | 79.0% |
| Voting Members Opposed | 21.3% | 20.8% | 21.0% |
Chair, CGA Alberta Board of Governors
Chair, CMA Alberta Board of Directors
July 03, 2012 at 5:23 pm, Elaine Lutz-Lalonde said:
It is not clear what the outcome for the CGA vote was. I think we need to know how many CGAs actually voted.
July 03, 2012 at 6:31 pm, Wayne Kennedy said:
Dear Sir or Madam:
Who was in charge of counting the vote?
I voted in May, did my vote count, if so, the conducted date should change.
Thank you
Wayne
July 12, 2012 at 4:13 pm, R Balestra said:
What are the percentages of CMA members required (quorum voting and approvals) to pass a final vote?
July 16, 2012 at 11:44 am, admin said:
The member vote on unification was to inform the board and the board would make a final decision in the early fall, taking into account all the other environmental factors such as what is happening in other provinces.
July 13, 2012 at 7:18 pm, Bill said:
I think it’s premature to undertake a final vote to move forward. It would be preferable from my perspective to have the CPA certification program finalized and CPA Canada legally formed before undertaking a final vote.
I also would prefer the concerns raised by the CAs in Alberta to be addressed at the national level before a final provincial vote takes place. From http://www.albertacas.ca/Resources/UnitingtheCanadianAccountingProfessionProject.aspx these are the two concerns the CAs have (in quotes):
“At the national level, the ICAA remains concerned about still-unresolved national issues, such as governance and minority rights protections. The ICAA has been actively seeking ways to address these issues since it withdrew from merger negotiations on February 9, 2012.”
It’s interesting that these two concerns the Alberta CAs have related to national governance and minority rights are the same concerns the CMAs in Ontario have as well as CGA Ontario, CGA Canada, and the other CGA affiliates. If these concerns are addressed then we could have full unification of the profession in Alberta with the CAs joining as well as full national unification. I think minority rights is not only about the different designations, but different provinces as well (something raised by CGA Manitoba in its latest CEO member update of July 1 posted on their website).
August 08, 2012 at 1:38 pm, Tina said:
I agree with Bill’s well written comment.
All national issues should be resolved and all provincial affiliates from each of the three designations should be in agreement first. As opposed to proceeding with partial unification in various provinces.
September 26, 2012 at 8:09 am, Evelyn said:
I agree with Bill too. While I think it is progressive to unite, I also think it would serve us well to have a detailed implementation plan enlighting us and those directly involved on how this will be undertaken.
An implementation plan will not only help address the concerns being raised by other bodies but it will help the rest of the accountants to make informed decisions.