CPA Canada is known as ‘The Canadian Ideal of Good Business’ for more reason than one.
Russell: Can you share a little bit about yourself and your background?
Pamela Steer: I obviously proud accountant and chartered professional accountant. Through a random coffee one day, a friend of mine who had just become CFO at WSIB, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board in Ontario said to me, Oh, Pamela, you're leaving your gig? Can you just come and help me for a few months on a couple of really big projects? I'm here with massive turnaround and help me out. That was a total left turn into things I knew nothing about. Broader public sector insurance, pension, asset management, all of those wonderful things, which is how, in fact, I met Derek Dobson for the first time and was introduced to CAAT, which is a wonderful experience, to start to really learn about the importance of pension planning, the importance of long-term liability planning and so forth. From there, it really led me to realize how important it is to me to have a higher purpose in what you do and the importance of social justice in economies and how helping people actually helps the economy as a whole and helps us all prosper.
Russell: How has the accounting profession changed over the last 15 or 20 years?
Pamela Steer: I am a proud possessor of the legacy designation, which was chartered accounting. There were three accounting bodies across Canada previously, so there were the chartered accountants, the certified management accountants and the certified general accountants. These groups got together several years ago and said, well, wouldn't we have a stronger voice if we were one body? Let's talk about, and eventually, indeed it came to pass that these three bodies merged into one which became CPA, the Chartered Professional Accounting designation that we have today. As new technology emerges, the importance of data science becomes even that much more important. You then you have all the notions of sustainability and what that means on the environmental level, particularly with respect to climate, and then on the social level as well in Canada, as well as globally.
Russell: Let's talk a little bit about financial literacy. Does CPA Canada have a role to play in financial literacy for Canadians?
Pamela Steer: Absolutely. I couldn't agree more with your statement. I would say it's analogous to your own environment. It's moved from being a separate group to being fully embedded in teams, and the accounting world is no different. Again, so many things come to roost as calculations that are data that start from science, but at some point they make their way into financial reporting or risk reporting. CPA Canada and others had a real big role to play in TCFD. So financial disclosure about climate, what we're seeing is that once again, the CFO is called upon. Yes, we need engineers. Yes, we need scientists. There is no doubt about it. CPAs are not going to pretend to have that expertise. But what we do know is when and how to rely on that expertise, first of all, and how to synthesize all that information together. At the end of the day, if you think of publicly traded companies who signs those quarterly reports, it's the CEO and the CFO. So the CFO is going to make sure that they're comfortable with those risk statements. They're working through those scenarios with elements of the rest of the team and the experts.
Russell: ESG is another area I wanted to talk. I think if you go back 20 years, we would think of ESG as over here, accounting over there and now environmental social governance factors are really embedded in the profession now. How are you seeing that, and how does CPA Canada help your members navigate these waters?
Pamela Steer: Absolutely. I couldn't agree more with your statement. I would say it's analogous to your own environment. It's moved from being a separate group to being fully embedded in teams, and the accounting world is no different. Again, so many things come to roost as calculations that are data that start from science, but at some point they make their way into financial reporting or risk reporting. CPA Canada and others had a real big role to play in TCFD. So financial disclosure about climate, what we're seeing is that once again, the CFO is called upon. Yes, we need engineers. Yes, we need scientists. There is no doubt about it. CPAs are not going to pretend to have that expertise. But what we do know is when and how to rely on that expertise, first of all, and how to synthesize all that information together. At the end of the day, if you think of publicly traded companies who signs those quarterly reports, it's the CEO and the CFO. So the CFO is going to make sure that they're comfortable with those risk statements. They're working through those scenarios with elements of the rest of the team and the experts.
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Pamela’s transcript has been slightly altered in this Q&A for clarity and brevity.