Thought Leadership, Research & CPA Spotlights

Your Voice Matters

What We've Heard

Your voice as a CPA Ontario member is critical in driving our profession forward and helping us respond to the challenges and opportunities of a rapidly changing economy.

Over the past year, we’ve prioritized engaging with members on topics of importance to the profession including the role for CPAs in growing the innovation economy, the rise of AI, the future of the profession and our efforts to find a new way of working across the country on the things that matter. Today, we want to share with you what we’ve heard, and what it means for CPA Ontario.

We’re Listening

We’ve heard from thousands of CPA Ontario members about what matters to you most, and what you want to see from us. Here are just a few of the ways we’ve connected in recent months:

Over 2,000 members and students registered for our three member and student engagement sessions.
We’re hosting regular engagement sessions with Ontario’s employers of CPAs. So far, we’ve connected with over 200 companies and firms.
We sent out a survey to a representative sample of 30,000 members to get their views on key topics, such as member services, our withdrawal from the Collaboration Accord, and the future of the profession.
We’ve met regularly with key stakeholders of our profession including the Ontario Government, the Ontario Securities Commission, the Canadian Public Accountability Board, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, the Canadian Centre for Audit Quality, and more.
And of course, we’ve heard from some of our 100,000 members and 20,000 students directly, having received or responded to over 500 emails and phone calls.

Each question or perspective expressed from an engagement session, email, phone call, and survey response, is valuable to us. We learned a lot about your views on the profession and the areas you want us to prioritize moving forward.

Key Findings

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Our member survey in particular has provided valuable insights on key issues related to the CPA profession. Here are just a few take aways that we look forward to speaking about more in the months ahead.

Views on the current state of the profession and designation

Almost nine-in-ten members (88%) are "proud to be a CPA".
74% believe that the public has a high level of confidence in the CPA profession today.
77% believe the CPA profession is perceived positively by Canadians.

Views on CPA Ontario

73% of members attach a strong importance to CPA Ontario’s maintenance and enforcement of high standards and a professional code of conduct.
43% are satisfied with the member perks and benefits that come with being a member of CPA Ontario, indicating there’s more that we need to do.
59% would like to see CPA Ontario doing more to engage them directly on the challenges facing the profession.

Views on the future of the profession

Members identified the top three issues facing the profession as being maintaining and enforcing high standards and a professional code of conduct (47%), AI (40%), and the recruitment of high-caliber individuals (37%).
In particular, members attach high importance to dealing with issues related to the rise of AI and other emerging technologies.
The top two opportunities facing the CPA profession were cited as leveraging and developing expertise in AI and other technologies (21%) and playing a larger role in promoting financial literacy and public education (6%).

Withdrawal from Collaboration Accord

60% of members feel that the issues which drove CPA Ontario’s decision to withdraw from the Collaboration Accord are important.
While 5% of members mentioned (unaided) "the need for national unity" as a priority, 80% feel that their CPA Ontario designation means they will always be a Canadian CPA.
Two-thirds of members (66%) agree that it is time to move forward and focus on the important issues facing the profession.

To delve deeper into our survey results, check out the “survey methodology” section below.

What’s Next?

We heard that you want more from us when it comes to perks like discounts and benefits such as insurance and assistance programs. So, we’ll be taking steps to both engage more on what is available and make sure we are offering the best options to our members.

You were clear that AI is top of mind – both as an opportunity and as a challenge. We feel the same. Our Innovation Leadership Accelerator prepares CPAs to play a leading role in the innovation and tech economy and includes exploration of the impact of AI on that sector. And our PD portfolio includes conferences such as this month’s Data Analytics Conference: Driving Business Insights in the Age of AI. We have more in the AI pipeline we look forward to sharing this year.

In the immediate future, we are holding roundtables this spring in Toronto, Ottawa, London and Northern Ontario to get further input from members on some of the themes that have emerged from this research. We will also continue to meet with employers and other stakeholders across the province.

We value your feedback, and strongly encourage you to take advantage of further engagement opportunities in 2024.

Survey Methodology

In November 2023, CPA Ontario sent an online questionaire to a representative sample of 30,000 CPA Ontario members to understand their perspectives on matters important to the profession. A total of 1373 members completed the survey.

We asked a range of questions on CPA Ontario’s role and effectiveness, the future of the profession, impressions of the CPA designation, and key topics including CPA Ontario’s withdrawal from the Collaboration Accord.

You can take a closer look at the survey results.

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