Building a New Framework:
Recommended Changes in Our Regulatory Areas
From the Regulatory Affairs Team
O
ne of the most critical and complex components of the unification process is the
merging of our three legacy regulatory frameworks into one new framework that will
best fulfil our mandate to protect the public while also serving our members. As you
can imagine, this requires a detailed, thoughtful process involving much research, consideration,
and collaboration.
Many of these recommendations have already been developed and approved by the Transitional
Steering Committee (TSC), which is recommending that they be adopted by the CPABC
Board following the enactment of, and subject to, CPABC legislation. For the time being, they
remain recommendations; however, many are consistent with current legacy practices—therefore,
the likelihood of their ultimate adoption is high. The regulatory processes of each legacy body
are robust and, collectively, present a very compelling picture. The development of the CPABC
recommendations has allowed us to select the very best of these practices, resulting in an even
more robust approach towards regulation.
When developing CPABC’s new regulatory structure for membership, continuing professional development, practice inspection, and ethics and discipline, international and national
standards were reviewed and existing legacy practices were compared. Consideration was also
paid to the practices of other provinces and regulatory bodies. This research provided the platform on which the CPABC recommendations could be created. Once draft recommendations
had been developed, they were presented to a volunteer group consisting of members from
each legacy body and several public representatives. Input was received from this group and
appropriate amendments were made. The resulting recommendations were then presented to
the TSC for approvals and reviewed by the legacy Boards/Council.
Although the timing for the implementation of some of the recommendations will depend
on the timing of CPA legislation in BC, some changes will be implemented early in 2015—in
time for the next CPD and member billing cycles; if CPA legislation is not enacted in BC by
then, the legacy bodies will make adjustments to their governing documentation, where necessary,
to enable the changes.
Below, you’ll find a list of key areas in which changes are recommended. More details will be
available later this fall on our website and in future issues of our various publications.
Area: Membership
New for all three legacy bodies:
• Changes to the definitions and relief of various fee exemption and fee reduction categories.
New for the ICABC:
• A stricter and tighter process for the suspension and cancellation of members who do not
pay their membership dues.
New for CMABC:
• The introduction of an ethics course as a pre-certification requirement.
• Permission to hold multiple provincial memberships.
New for CGA-BC:
• Moving the ethics course requirement for new admissions from the post-certification stage
to the pre-certification stage.
• Permission to hold multiple provincial memberships.
• The introduction of a suspension and cancellation process in place of a deemed resignation
process for members who do not pay their membership dues.
22 CPABC in Focus • Sept/Oct 2014
Area: CPD
New for all three legacy bodies:
• Changes to the definitions and relief of
various CPD exemption categories.
New for the ICABC:
• Moving from a fixed three-year reporting
cycle to a rolling three-year reporting cycle
(2014-2016 will be the last fixed cycle, and
2015-2017 will be the first rolling cycle).
• Four hours of mandatory ethics education
for each three-year cycle, beginning with
the 2015-2017 cycle.
• The introduction of a late reporting
administrative fee.
New for CMABC:
• A reporting period that coincides with the
calendar year, and learning hours instead
of credits (already effective for the current
reporting period).
• Requiring members to report the number
of hours for two categories (verifiable and
unverifiable) rather than providing detailed
reporting, beginning with 2015 CPD.
• Four hours of mandatory ethics education
for each three-year cycle, beginning with
the 2015-2017 cycle.
• The introduction of a suspension and
cancellation process within the current
CPD reporting year for members who do
not report sufficient hours.
• An annual audit process.
New for CGA-BC:
• Requiring members to report the number
of hours for two categories (verifiable and
unverifiable) rather than providing detailed
reporting, beginning with 2015 CPD.
• Requiring members to accumulate four
hours of ethics education in each cycle,
beginning with 2015 CPD (replaces the
mandatory four-hour ethics course per
cycle).
• The introduction of a suspension and
cancellation process for members who do
not report sufficient hours.