It is used in other jurisdictions, but it means different things according to which jurisdiction you're in. It's not used in federal legislation, like the Bank Act, the Elections Act, the CMHC Act. It's not used. The word “auditor” is used in that legislation.
It becomes even more complex when you switch to the French, because in French they use the expression “expert comptable” when I think they want it to mean “public accountant”. And “expert comptable” means a professional accountant. Here's where it just gets a little bit trickier: not every professional accountant is a public accountant or provides public accounting services. There's an additional requirement.
I talked a lot about experience, examination, ethical requirements. There are additional requirements of those professional accountants, those experts comptables, who perform public accounting services. Not everyone can hang up their shingles. Professional associations require that extra.
That's is why we feel it's quite important to recognize in legislation that not everyone can provide these services; only those who have met the requirements of the regulatory bodies to provide public accounting services.