CPA Ontario Public Sector Accounting Symposium
CPA Ontario and the Ted Rogers School of Management are pleased to present the first annual CPA Ontario Symposium on Public Sector Accounting. It took place at the Ted Rogers School of Management, Toronto Metropolitan University, on June 20th, 2018. The main theme of this year’s symposium was
Developments in Accounting & Accountability in First Nations Communities: Emerging issues in practice and standard setting.
(PDF file) Download The Office of the Auditor General presentation
The event began with an address from Bonnie Lysyk, Auditor General of Ontario. The Auditor General discussed current issues relating to the accuracy of communication of the province's finances. She outlined recent findings on the use of public sector standards in government accounting practices, budgeting and reporting.
Followed by a round-table style discussion focused on the main theme, including representatives of First Nations involved in accounting and accountability.
Continuing with presentations of the winners of a Best Paper contest on public sector and not-for-profit accounting, and there was an opportunity for discussion and networking among the participants.
The symposium was held in association with the 2018 Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting Research (CSEAR) North America Congress taking place at the Ted Rogers School of Management on June 21-22.
The symposium is meant to bring together practitioners, policy makers and academics in an atmosphere that encourages positive discourse on key areas of public sector accounting.
Date
Registration is now closed
The 2018 conference was on June 20, 2018
10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Location
TRSM Commons - (PDF file) Room: 1-148
55 Dundas Street West, M5G 2C3 (external link)
Ted Rogers School of Management, Toronto Metropolitan University
Biographies of Best Paper Winners and Contest Judges, Download Best Papers
Winner of Best Paper Contest – Category: Emerging Scholar (Sponsored by CPA Canada)
Russell Evans, PhD
Assistant Professor, Accounting, Odette School of Business, University of Windsor (Windsor, Canada)
Paper: Budgeting Practices in Canadian First Nations Settings: A study of Their Role in the Persistence of Arbitrary-set Social Hierarchies
Paper Abstract:
This study examines how budgets and budgeting in the Canadian government’s Grants and Contributions Program govern the financial transfer of money to Indigenous recipient groups. The study indicates that budgeting practices allow government agencies to reinforce a dominant-subordinate social relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous groups in the specific colonial setting. The budgeting structure retains characteristics of historic colonial forms, originally intended to contain, control and assimilate the Indigenous population of Canada. Two key outcomes of the study are that Indigenous populations have little choice but to cooperate with government imposed budgeting requirements, but that they retain their sense of agency through small acts of calculated resistance.
(PDF file) Download copy of Russell Evans Paper (opens in new window)
Winner of Best Paper Contest – Category: Established Scholar
Diane-Laure Arjaliès, PhD
Assistant Professor, Ivey Business School, Western University (London, Canada)
Paper: Can Accounting Save Nature(s)? The Case of Endangered Species
Co-author:
Delphine Gibassier,
Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham (Birmingham, United Kingdom)
Paper Abstract:
This study examines one of the first performance indices developed by conservationists to assess their effectiveness at saving endangered species. The article demonstrates that conservationists used the performance index to select the species to be saved. This selection, however, eventually led to transform species into investments that had to show a return, relative to the efforts put forward by the conservationists to save them. The article demonstrates that the financialization work of conservationists is an outcome of the penetration of humankind into the Anthropocene, and the adoption of The Economy as the default mode for governing societies. Although conservationists described this move as a collective failure, they nevertheless praised financialization work, that they believed provided a way to re-connect humans to nature(s). The article discusses the implications of such findings for accounting, conservation science and the protection of biodiversity. The article is based on an in-depth study of the conservation organization that created the performance index, 53 interviews with conservationists and conservation finance specialists, conservation fieldwork and secondary evidence.
Judges, Best Paper Contest
CPA Ontario and the Ted Rogers School of Management would like to thank Marion Brivot and Marie-Soleil Tremblay for kindly taking on the role of judges for the best paper contest. All contest submissions were blind reviewed by the judges in the process of selecting the winning papers.
Marion Brivot
Associate Professor, School of Accounting, Université Laval (Quebec City, Canada)
Marion Brivot is an associate professor of accounting at Université Laval (Canada). She holds a PhD from HEC Paris (France) and worked for KPMG LLP and other professional service firms for several years before starting her career in academia. Her research concerns how tax advisors, financial auditors and internal auditors working in professional service firms and public sector organizations understand, assess and control the quality of their own work. She also is interested in issues of professional ethics. She has published papers in prestigious academic journals such as Organization Studies, Human Relations, Accounting Organizations and Society, Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory and European Accounting Review. Dr. Brivot currently serves on the editorial boards of Critical Perspectives on Accounting, European Accounting Review, Behavioral Research in Accounting, Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal and Accounting Forum (associate editor).
Marie-Soleil Tremblay,
Professor in accounting, l'École nationale d'administration publique (Quebec City, Canada)
Marie-Soleil Tremblay is a Fellow certified professional accountant and full professor in accounting at l'École nationale d'administration publique. Prior to this position she was lecturer in accounting and audit at Laval University. For more than ten years she practiced external auditing for Deloitte, then for the Québec Auditor general’s Office. Professor Tremblay is the author of many books and articles on audit, corporate governance, controls and public sector financial management and has presented her research in academic and professional conferences through out the world. She is on the Editorial Board of Critical Perspectives on Accounting and Accounting, Auditing and Accountabilty Journal and associate editor for Accounting and the Public Interest, a AAA journal.
| Time | Item | Presenters |
| 9:15 a.m. | Registration Opens | |
| 10:00 - 10:15 a.m. | Welcome and opening remarks | CPA Ontario |
| 10:15 - 11:00 a.m. | Keynote speaker | Bonnie Lysyk Auditor General of Ontario |
| 11:00 - 11:15 a.m. | Break | |
| 11:15 a.m. - 12:45 p.m. | Panel discussion – Developments in Accounting & Accountability in First Nations Communities: Emerging issues in practice and standard setting |
The panel will include representatives of First Nations involved in accounting and accountability. |
| 12:45 - 1:45 p.m. | Lunch | |
| 1:45 - 2:20 p.m. | Best paper presentation: Emerging Scholar "Budgeting Practices in Canadian First Nations Settings: A study of Their Role in the Persistence of Arbitrary-set Social Hierarchies" |
Russel Evans PhD Candidate University of Windsor |
| 2:20 - 3:00 p.m. | Best paper presentation: Established Scholar "Can Accounting Save Nature(s)? The Case of Endangered Species." |
Diane-Laure Arjaliès Ivey School of Business Western University |
| 3:00 - 3:15 p.m. | Closing remarks | |
| 3:15 - 4:00 p.m. | Networking reception | |