Updating the Accountants (Chartered) Act

UPDATE

The Institute is beginning to see some movement on a second legislative front, which is good news to BC's chartered accountants. Long-awaited updates to the Accountants (Chartered) Act have entered the government's official legislative process along with Limited Liability Partnership legislation (watch for a complete update on LLPs in October's Beyond Numbers).

Most professions-doctors, lawyers, nurses, accountants, engineers, architects, etc-are mandated to govern themselves by statutory authority granted by the provincial government. Each profession is responsible for keeping its own bylaws current, but more significant changes-those requiring changes to the legislation itself-require approval by the Legislative Assembly. Each proposed legislative amendment has to be researched; drafted; made a priority by first an individual ministry and then the fall Cabinet; introduced in the legislative assembly; given three "readings" or debates and Royal assent by the Lieutenant-Governor; and finally put into force by a Cabinet Order once the accompanying regulations are drafted.

On the surface, the process may seem overly convoluted, and indeed it is not uncommon for appropriate and necessary legislation to be unduly delayed. However, there are good reasons for the complexity of this process. Because the government wields such tremendous power over its citizens, these checks and balances were implemented to ensure full and open scrutiny of any new public policy initiative, helping to protect the public from precipitous, ill-advised legislation.

Each year, the provincial government approves only 50 or 60 bills, so getting an initiative, especially one without broad public appeal, onto the Order Paper can be a frustratingly slow process. The Accountants (Chartered) Act is a case in point.

For the past number of years, the challenge of getting the Act updated has been in the hands of Barry Mottershead, FCA, ICABC's Director of Member Services. Mottershead reports that the initial package of proposed Act changes was sent to the ministry responsible (Advanced Education) in July 1997, followed by further requests for changes in July 1998, and again in June 1999, all without success. The Institute continued to work with ministry officials, taking the Act to its fourth draft.

Then in 2001, the Act Changes Task Force was established to evaluate the fourth draft and the issues outstanding, and to assess whether the draft addressed the current and anticipated needs of the CA profession.

In February 2002, Mottershead and ICABC First VP Robin Elliot, FCA, along with officials in the ministry, reviewed in detail the recommendations made by the Task Force. Further support was expressed by Impact CA and former Council member Mark Dickie, CA, when he met with Advanced Education Minister Shirley Bond in Prince George in April. Then in June 2002, a letter was sent to Advanced Education Deputy Minister Gerry Armstrong in response to the request for suggestions for streamlining the legislation governing our profession as part of Minister of State for Deregulation Kevin Falcons deregulation program, once again outlining the need for changes to the Act.

Finally, all this persistence began to show dividends. Mottershead was invited to present the Institute's position to a newly appointed official in the Ministry of Advanced Education-Tony Loughran, Manager of Legislation in the Corporate Services Branch. At their meeting on July 19, Loughran advised that the Minister had in fact put forward a Request for Legislation (RFL) "with priority" on July 5th.

The importance of the changes to CAs was further reinforced during a personal meeting on August 6 between Institute CEO Richard Rees, FCA, and Gerry Armstrong.

Even with all these efforts behind the scenes and the positive indications from the Minister and her senior officials, getting changes to the Act into the legislative process is no slam-dunk.

The general process is as follows:

* The RFLs are reviewed by an Agenda and Priority Committee of Cabinet, which makes recommendations to full Cabinet.

* Sometime in September 2002, Cabinet will give direction on legislation that is going forward to the Spring 2003 legislative session.

* Final drafting is done throughout the fall, with the possibility of minor amendments as late as January 2003.

* During this process, new initiatives are called bills and assigned a number.

* Once the legislative session gets underway in early February 2003, bills, generally in the order of their number, are introduced, debated, sometimes amended and, if everything has gone smoothly, approved by the MLAs.

Recognizing any number of pitfalls along the way, the profession will continue to do all it can to ensure that changes to the Act remain a priority of the government's legislative agenda for the spring session.

Copyright Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia Sep 2002
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