Hal­i­fax–Build­ing on the mo­men­tum of Cana­da's new­ly cre­at­ed Char­tered Pro­fes­sion­al Ac­coun­tants (CPA) des­ig­na­tion, it was an­nounced that the re­gion­al of­fice for Cer­ti­fied Man­age­ment Ac­coun­tants (CMA) of No­va Sco­tia, Bermu­da, and the Caribbean will be in­tro­duc­ing CPA's new cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­gramme to the Caribbean.Class­es will be of­fered be­gin­ning in late Ju­ly–si­mul­ta­ne­ous with pro­gramme launch dates in Cana­da.

The CMA re­gion­al of­fice is one of many or­gan­i­sa­tions in­volved in the com­plex merg­er that is unit­ing Cana­da's three ex­ist­ing ac­count­ing des­ig­na­tions.It is al­so the of­fice re­spon­si­ble for CMA pro­grammes cur­rent­ly avail­able through­out the Caribbean."It is a priv­i­lege for us to build on our strong foun­da­tion and rep­u­ta­tion in the Caribbean," said Nan­cy Foran, CMA, FC­MA, C. Dir., CEO of the re­gion­al of­fice for CMA No­va Sco­tia, Bermu­da, and the Caribbean.

"The new CPA brand rep­re­sents a com­mit­ment to the high­est stan­dards of ethics and prac­tice and will al­low us to more ef­fec­tive­ly serve busi­ness and the pub­lic–in Cana­da, the Caribbean, and around the world."CPA Cana­da was cre­at­ed as a le­gal en­ti­ty on Jan­u­ary 13 as the suc­ces­sor or­gan­i­sa­tion to Char­tered Ac­coun­tants of Cana­da and Cer­ti­fied Man­age­ment Ac­coun­tants of Cana­da.

On April 25, Cer­ti­fied Gen­er­al Ac­coun­tants of Cana­da pub­licly an­nounced its in­ten­tion to par­tic­i­pate in the uni­fi­ca­tion of the pro­fes­sion as well.Cur­rent­ly, or­gan­i­sa­tions rep­re­sent­ing al­most 90 per cent of Cana­da's pro­fes­sion­al ac­coun­tants are com­mit­ted to uni­fi­ca­tion un­der the CPA des­ig­na­tion.

The new CPA cer­ti­fi­ca­tion path builds on the best of ex­ist­ing CA, CMA, and CGA ed­u­ca­tion pro­grammes, cre­at­ing a chal­leng­ing and rig­or­ous cer­ti­fi­ca­tion process that meets the needs of busi­ness, pub­lic prac­tice, and gov­ern­ment.On May 13, fur­ther an­nounce­ments will be made with re­spect to CPA pro­gramme de­tails, prices, and sched­ul­ing in the Caribbean as well as for in­for­ma­tion-ses­sion dates in Bar­ba­dos, Ja­maica, and T&T.

For the most re­cent in­for­ma­tion on the CPA in the Caribbean, please vis­it www.cpacaribbean.ca.