The Office des professions du Québec (Quebec professions board) oversees all accounting professions in Quebec and delegates to each of them its mandate to inform and protect the public against fraud, negligence or embezzlement:

What the Office Can Do for You

It is the Office’s responsibility to inform the public about the professional system, to offer them a means to communicate and to read their comments in order to help them better understand the applications used to protect the public.

With its service statement to the public, the Office uses this opportunity to inform the public on all aspects of the professional accounting system and direct them with the appropriate steps to take or countermeasures available to them if they believe they have been prejudiced by a member of the accounting profession.

(Free-style translation of the French copy found on http://www.opq.gouv.qc.ca/office-des-professions-du-quebec/ce-que-loffice-peut-faire-pour-vous/ – Site in French only.)

At a recent meeting, a fellow accountant was saying to another attendee that there were two professional accounting orders in Quebec, the CA order and the CGA order. I immediately reacted, and the accountant had to apologize and explain that there were indeed not two, but three orders. The attendee then asked the following questions: « How can we know who we are dealing with ? Doesn’t a person who calls himself an accountant have to be a member of a professional order ? » The table was set for a debate on how the public should differentiate.

Good news: The Office recently suggested again to the three orders to unify. To me, this would be a big step, and I believe the timing is perfect. Since I started working in accounting (in 1970), I have considered that there should be only one title for accountants, with different accreditations (certification, management, taxation, business assessment, others). The three accounting orders – the CMA, CA and CGA orders – have previously attempted a number of times to join forces. To better understand the background, I invite you to read the article published on March 29, 2011, on cyberpresse (article in French only, see link below). The three Quebec orders (and only the CA and CMA orders in the rest of Canada) have undertaken a province-wide consultation tour from mid-August to mid-September. This tour is intended with one objective in mind: Should the three orders unite and should their members all have the title of CPAs (certified professional accountant) ?

Personally, I believe that to ensure the protection of the public and to avoid any ambiguity, all requests made by the Order to the Office des professions regarding the title itself should go far beyond simply selecting a wording. When I deal with a lawyer, a notary or a physician, I don’t ask myself if he or she is a professional. His or her title tells me that he or she is a member of an order and that I have recourse against him or her, for this reason. So, why do accountants have to add the word « professional » to their title ? Together, the three orders count for more than 30,000 members. That puts us amongst one of the largest orders, after the Quebec nurses and engineers associations. I think that we, as accountants, governed by a “professional” order, have the necessary power to ask for an exclusive title.

I believe that the title of accountant should be exclusive, in the same way it is for physicians, engineers and nurses.

Do not hesitate to contact me to make comments.

Marc Taillefer, CMA