The Ontario Nonprofit Network (ONN) and Imagine Canada have established an Expert Committee with the mandate of reviewing and responding to the consultation document entitled "Financial Reporting by Not-For-Profit Organizations". This document was issued jointly by the Accounting Standards Board and the Public Sector Accounting Board and sector organizations have until June 30, 2009 to submit their comments.
Reviewing the various options is a difficult exercise but ONN and Imagine have assembled a committee with a wide range of experience and expertise to provide you with their assessment of the choices. Organizations in the not-for-profit sector need standards that help us meet our reporting obligations to our various publics in a fashion that properly and accurately discloses our financial position.
Accounting Standards are the baseline definitions that affect how not-for-profit organizations state their financial information and present their audited financial statements. The not-for-profit sector currently uses private enterprise standards, supplemented by the 4400 series of Sections in the CICA Handbook, but we now have an opportunity to explore other, possibly better suited, accounting regimes. Because not all standard regimes are equally able to accommodate the special needs of the not-for-profit sector, the Expert Committee will explore the implications of each of the proposed accounting regime before making its recommendations. In addition, the private sector standards are also being revised and publicly traded organizations are in the process of transitioning to the International Financial Reporting Standards over the next few years.
The Expert Committee hopes to have completed its technical review by early May and have a briefing note ready for the sector explaining their findings and recommendations. Imagine Canada will circulate the brief across Canada and ONN will circulate it to its provincial list. The Committee will then host a webcast (tentatively scheduled for the end of April) to get further sector input and discuss their recommendations.
Members of this constellation include:
Laurie Mook (Chair) Centre for Social Economy, OISE/UT
Bobbi-Jean White, KPMG
Anne Pashley, Ontario Trillium Foundation
Brandur Olafsson, Canadian Crossroads International
Don McCreesh, Imagine Canada
Eric Plato, Frontier College
Heather Young, Accountant
Lynn Eakin, Ontario Nonprofit Network
Pat Bradley, Ontario Arts Council
Lois Fine, YWCA Toronto
