Hello All,
Since many of us are in the final phase of departure for Canada and exploring different options for study/career, etc. this discussion might be helpful for them. This is focused but NOT limited to the Accounting/Finance Professionals only.
Many of you are aware that currently there are three major accounting qualification offered in Canada – CA, CMA and CGA.
With a view to securing the strongest possible future for the Canadian accounting profession, the leaders of the Accounting Professional Bodies in Canada decided to the creation of a new professional designation and finally they came up with a new designation Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA).
The Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA), Certified Management Accountants of Canada (CMA Canada) and the Certified General Accountants of Canada (CGA-Canada) have presented to their members a proposed framework for uniting Canada's accounting profession.
The three national bodies believe uniting the profession would allow them to better meet the evolving needs of Canadian accountants, national and international business communities as well as continuing to protect the public interest.
The framework calls for the creation of a new designation – Chartered Professional Accountant or CPA – and a new common certification program. The Canadian CPA would draw upon the strengths of the existing three organizations and will become an internationally recognized and respected business credential. Some of the related points are extracted from relevant sources as below:
VISION FOR THE PROFESSION
To be the pre-eminent, internationally recognized Canadian accounting designation and business credential that best protects and serves the public interest.
GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR UNIFICATION
The guiding principles provide the framework to unify the profession and achieve the vision.
1. Evolution to a single designation
• The new profession would adopt the Canadian designation Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA).
• All current members in good standing would be granted this designation from their new CPA provincial body as CPA legislation is approved.
• For a period of 10 years, all members using the new CPA designation would be required to use it in conjunction with their existing designations. No current member could
use the CPA without identifying his or her legacy designation as follows:
o First and Last Name, CPA, CA
o First and Last Name, CPA, CMA
o First and Last Name, CPA, CGA
• After 10 years, a member could choose to use the CPA designation on its own.
2. Continued use of existing designations
• Existing members would retain their current professional designations.
• No member would be automatically granted an existing professional designation of another body.
• The national and provincial CPA bodies would be promoting the new CPA designation. Use of legacy designations on their own post-unification would be subject to
provincial merger agreements and legislation.
3. Certification
The new CPA organization would establish a certification program that draws on the strengths of the existing programs and would be recognized by members, regulators,
global accounting organizations and the business community as being at least as rigorous as all existing programs.
The following links will provide a more detail discussion on the certification.
http://cpacanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/CPA_Certification_Program.pdf
http://cpacanada.ca/certification-program
I will be more than happy to discuss on this!!!
All the best!!!
smiling_face 
