Bar foreign-trained accountants from practicing?

Organizations like the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) are unable to digest the recent legislation introduced by Attorney General Chris Bentley which is aimed at making the certification requirements for people in the accounting industry tougher.

Mahes Wickramasinghe, a Sri Lankan who recently came here, said that the new legislation differentiates between foreign-trained professionals and locally trained professionals. He said Canada is a country which depends on skilled immigrants. He said when people like him come to Canada they are told that it is illegal for them to use their qualifications in this country.

Martin Sexton, secretary of the Canadian branch of CIMA, an organization having over 170,000 members in more than hundred countries, said that the new law would bar him from listing his qualification on his business card because other accounting bodies in Ontario think that it might create some type of confusion. He said that it will cause a lot of problems for the members of his organization, especially for people who are new to Canada.

Sexton said that all members of his organization are proud of their qualifications and the law is simply an attempt to make their qualifications less legitimate.

Peter Varley, a spokesperson for the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario, however disagrees with Sexton views. He said that the new measure is nothing more than a step towards protecting the interests of consumers.

Erin Moroz, Bentley spokesperson, said that the legislation does not contain anything that would bar foreign trained accounting from doing their practice.