We have been meeting with the Canadian General Accountants and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants on this issue with respect to the Canada Business Corporations Act, which has had a similar provision for well on ten years. The two groups have been fighting about this for probably longer than that. That's as far back as I've heard their presentation.
The Canadian General Accountants want to be able to do audits nationally; the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants don't want them to. Since it is a professional issue, it is generally fought out at the provincial level. The Canadian General Accountants are slowly getting each province.... Quebec recently went to court against the Canadian General Accountants over whether their provincial standards for who is licensed to do audits and review engagements is justified or not. This is not a simple discussion. We have certainly heard from them multiple times on this particular bill.
The federal approach in the corporate statutes has been that this is a provincial jurisdiction. All we want to do is recognize provincial jurisdiction.
The objective behind paragraph 181(1)(b) is that whatever the provincial standards are for who can conduct financial reviews we will respect. If there is no reference at all, you simply have to be a member of the association. Somebody who does not have the educational standards, who is not licensed in meeting the provincial requirement, would be authorized to do the financial review of a federal corporation. That is exactly what the Canadian General Accountants want. It would mean that for a federal corporation in a province where they are not recognized provincially as being qualified to do financial reviews, they would still be allowed to do them. It's essentially overriding whatever the provincial law is.
Our argument is we don't want to get into the middle of this fight. We will let the provinces settle because the provinces are the best place to settle this issue.