Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) is a designation given by the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (Canadian CPA) to individuals that pass the Uniform CPA Examination and meet the education and experience requirements. The CPA designation helps enforce professional standards in the accounting industry. CPA (Chartered Professional Accountant) is the highest accounting credential in Canada. CPA ensures global recognition for accounting & finance professionals.
CPAs are admitted to the profession through their Provincial Institutes. These bodies are responsible for establishing and administering the qualification process, admission criteria, and performance standards within their jurisdictions. The Canadian CPA's role – in concert with all provinces, and territories – is to develop and maintain consistent, uniform standards for the profession's qualification process. These standards ensure the portability of the CPA’s designation across Canada and internationally through various mutual recognition agreements.
CPA ONTARIO CPD REQUIREMENT OVERVIEW
| CPD Requirements | 120 hours in a triennial period and for each triennial period thereafter of which 60 hours must be verifiable. Each member must complete a minimum of 20 hours of CPD annually of which 10 hours must be verifiable. |
| License Renewal Period | Renew your license by June 1st annually |
| CPD Reporting Cycle | CPD reporting is based on the calendar year. CPD reporting for CPA Ontario is from January 1 to December 31 each year. |
| Ethics Requirement | 4 verifiable hours in the area of professional ethics |
All members are required to make a CPD Declaration annually, regardless of any previously declared exemptions or change of employment status. Each member must complete 120 hours over a three-year rolling cycle (current year and prior two years), of which 60 hours must be verifiable. Each member must complete a minimum of 20 hours of CPD annually of which 10 hours must be verifiable. Many of our programs in Live and Self-Study are eligible for continuing education for CPA Ontario.
Here is a link to Canadian CPA packages which will provide you with professional development in various fields like financial reporting, Domestic & International Taxation, Fraud & Risk Management, Information Technology, Leadership skills and development, and business in one go.
Each member is required to complete 4 verifiable hours in the area of professional ethics. Various examples of Professional Ethics topics are given on CPA Ontario website, which may include but are not limited to:
CPA Ontario needs to renew its license by June 1st annually.
CPD reporting is based on the calendar year. CPD reporting for CPA Ontario is from January 1 to December 31 each year.
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Learning outcomes for the professional competence of members applying for or renewing a public accounting license are mentioned below:-
Technical competencies:
Professional Skills
Professional Values, Ethics, and Attitudes
If you do not meet your Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requirements, you must submit an online Plan of Action within 14 days of completing your annual obligations requirement. The plan of action indicates you agree to complete the missing minimum verifiable and unverifiable CPD requirements.
The Plan of Action allows you an additional 120 days to complete the missing CPD hours. You must declare compliance via My Portal when you have completed the plan. You must ensure that you complete the current year’s CPD requirement in addition to the hours required in the Plan of Action.
Verifiable CPD
Hours are considered verifiable if you have acceptable documentation to support the professional development hours. CPAs must keep records and supporting documents of these activities for at least five years in case they are audited.
Verifiable hours can be gained through continuing education, instruction/speaking, committees, and research/publications.
Unverifiable CPD
CPAs obtain unverifiable hours through independent and informal learning activities. These activities can include:
Members must also track their unverifiable hours to ensure that they are meeting the requirements. If you are selected for audit, you may need to include unverifiable hours completed in your log in order to meet the minimum CPD hours required.
myCPE provides a package for Canadian CPAs that will satisfy various professional development requirements for CPA professionals which include on-demand webinars on financial reporting, Domestic & International Taxation, Fraud & Risk Management, Information Technology, Leadership skills, and development, and business. This CPD package comes in a variety of CPD bundles such as 10 CPD, 20 CPD, and 40 CPD.
Every Member shall retain documents, records, and other evidence satisfactory to CPA Ontario of the professional development activities undertaken or to the Member’s compliance with the requirements of this Regulation for the previous five years.
A Member shall, upon request, produce any document, record, declaration, evidence, or Other item relating to professional development activities undertaken or to the Member’s compliance with the requirements of this Regulation.
All members, including new members, are required to submit a CPD Declaration each year regarding the previous calendar year.
New members who were admitted during the previous calendar year after completion of the CPA Ontario student programs may declare ‘I comply’ for that year based on their completion of the applicable student program. Additional CPD hours are not required for that year.
New members admitted under any other pathway are required to complete the minimum CPD hour requirement.
If you are a retired CPA, then you must meet all of the following criteria if you want to take an exemption from CPD requirements:-
CPA Ontario is required to pay Annual Membership Dues (AMD) as per the below-mentioned details:
| Deadline for Payment | Dues |
| June 1 | $980 + applicable taxes (CPA Ontario $580 + Canadian CPA $400) |
| June 2 | Late dues applied, up to a maximum of $100 |
| June 30 | Final deadline to avoid membership suspension |
For new members, they pay a one-time admission to the membership application fee of $500 + HST, plus they must also pay the applicable portion of the current year’s AMD. Members admitted from January 1 – to March 31 will not have to pay AMD with their admission to the membership application fee, however, will be billed AMD as of April 1 and must pay by June 1.
CPD providers are not required to be approved by any organization in order to offer CPD hours to Canadian CPAs as long as the activity offered by them allows CPAs to develop and maintain professional competency to enable them to perform their professional role, it will qualify for CPD. Therefore, the courses listed on myCPE for CPA in Canada are eligible for fulfilling Canadian CPAs and CPA Ontario CPD requirements. However, we are not specifically approved by CPA Canada.
CPA Ontario does not pre-determine how much CPD is gained at an activity, nor does the organization pre-determine what qualifies as CPD for each individual CPA. CPA Ontario follows the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) criteria for CPD and is working towards harmonizing exemption and qualifying activities for verifiable and non-verifiable CPD with provincial CPA organizations across Canada.
For further guidance, we have provided details for “QUALIFIES FOR” on each page of the courses about Approval/Qualifications of CPA CPD Credits for your reference. Webinars that qualify for Canadian CPA meet the standards for CPA Ontario (Chartered Professional Accountants Ontario) CPD requirements. However, we are not specifically approved by CPA Canada.
