The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario is the qualifying and regulatory body of Ontario’s almost 36,000 Chartered Accountants and more than 5,000 CA students.

Since 1879, the Institute has protected the public interest through the CA profession’s high standards of qualification and the enforcement of its rules of professional conduct. The Institute works in partnership with the other provincial Institutes of Chartered Accountants and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants to provide nationally consistent, internationally recognized standards and programs that protect the public and safeguard our international trading partner commitments.

The Institute’s members in public practice are subject to mandatory professional liability insurance programs and may also be subject to practice inspection by the Institute. These requirements ensure the maintenance and enforcement of high standards of qualification and conduct. Other Institute programs support all Ontario Chartered Accountants in fulfilling their professional responsibilities. Among them are a wide array of mandatory professional development programs, and ethics and technical advisory services.

The Institute also facilitates CA contributions to the wider community. These include such diverse activities as Free CA Tax Clinics for low-income people and providing government with technical advice on a wide range of provincial legislative matters.

The profession of Chartered Accountancy in Ontario is governed by the Chartered Accountants Act, 2010. Public accountancy (assurance activity that lends credibility to financial statements) is governed in Ontario by the Public Accounting Act, 2004. Standards of practice are enforced by the Institute’s Rules of Professional Conduct and bylaws.

Oversight is provided by the Public Accountants Council of Ontario, comprised of a majority of eminent non-accountants as well as representatives of the province’s three recognized accounting bodies, and which has authorized the Institute to serve as a public accounting licensing body.

Ontario CAs work in public practice, businesses of every size, education, government and the not-for-profit sector, and serve every facet of society. They contribute greatly to international and domestic investor confidence in the soundness of the Ontario and Canadian economies.

Institute management is accountable to an elected Council that governs the profession, comprised of 20 members, 16 of whom are elected Chartered Accountants and four of whom are public representatives appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council.