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Improving Corporate Governance in Canada

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CPA Ontario Centre for Corporate
Reporting and Professionalism

Launched March 20, 2007, the CPA Ontario Centre for Corporate Reporting and Professionalism at Smith School of Business is an initiative funded by Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario. The goal is to improve corporate governance in Canada through a variety of research and teaching programs. The Centre is the first in Canada to have as its primary mission, research in the area of governance.

About the Centre

Mission

To be the premier Centre for the thoughtful study of governance in Canada with a special emphasis on the roles of the public accountants and audit committees to whom they report.

Vision

  • A Centre for creative and innovative ideas about corporate governance reforms.
  • A Centre to advocate for inclusion of stakeholders beyond shareholders in defining good corporate governance.
  • A Centre for constructive examination of Canadian board norms and practices.
  • A Centre that will aid the integration of corporate governance understanding in all bachelors, masters, and doctoral level programs at Smith School of Business and the broader Queen’s campus.
  • A Centre that will ensure that Smith School of Business students entering the CPA program of studies will be prepared to enter that program and to have an above average understanding of the role of the public accountant in corporate governance.

Values

  • Recognition that governance is part of the larger movement towards corporate social responsibility that centers around the understanding that management is responsible to investors, as well as to a broader group of stakeholders for the long term well being of the entity and the entity’s role in society.
  • Creating an effective board of directors to control management’s use of power by setting appropriate limitations on management to make decisions that would negatively affect the long term well being of the entity and society at large.
  • Recognizing and communicating management’s accountability for the long term well being of the entity to all stakeholders.
  • Creating an effective audit committee to ensure that the public accountant has unfettered access to the board of directors and obtains the full assistance and cooperation of all levels of management in carrying out the public accountant’s regulatory and statutory roles.
  • Developing formal and informal processes and procedures that enable stakeholders to influence the board’s and management’s decisions including examination of the costs and benefits of relatively more unique Canadian governance practices such as public companies with multiple voting share classes and/or minority investors.

Corporate Governance Research

The Centre will fund Smith faculty and doctoral student research into Canadian and international corporate governance issues. Current research projects include the following:

  • “The Impact of Board CSR Expertise on Firm CSR Performance”. Research team: Steven Salterio (Smith); Gordon Richardson (Rotman); Michael Marin (Rotman); Daehyun Kim (Rotman)
  • Factors present when group fraud begins”. Research team: Pamela Murphy, (retired Smith); Christie Haynes, (Urbana-Champaign); Estha Gondowijoyo (Smith).
  • “Being and becoming partner in the age of audit inspections”. Research team: Oriane Couchoux (HEC Montreal); Bertrand Malsch (Smith); Henri Guenin (Laval)
  • “StolenBySmith: Collective Action and Accountability in the Age of Social Media Disruption”. Research team: Tina Dacin (Smith); Ryan Stack (Smith); Bertrand Malsch (Smith)
  • “The acquisition of Clearwater Seafoods by the Mi’kmaq community: a case for the indigenization of management control systems”: Ryan Stack (Smith); Bertrand Malsch (Smith); Mary Beth Doucette (Cape Breton University).
EVENT

Alternative Accounts Conference

The Alternative Accounts Conference brings together accounting faculty and doctoral students from North America and beyond who are interested in alternative accounting research. The Conference especially aims to increase accounting researchers’ awareness of the diverse areas of research belonging to the “alternative” paradigm of accounting research, and to provide a forum to discuss these studies from a variety of viewpoints – in a constructive environment. This conference rotates between Alberta, Ontario and Québec.

2019 agenda (PDF, 178KB)
Bertrand Malsch

Our Director

Bertrand Malsch is Associate Professor of Accounting at Smith School of Business at Queen's University since 2013. He is the 2020 Recipient of the Award for Research Excellence.

He holds a PhD in accounting from Laval University and is a member of the Quebec Bar.

He is the author of numerous leading articles in international academic journals on the subject of auditing, accounting regulation and governance. His work has been presented in many scholarly and professional conferences around the world.

He is associate editor of the Behavioral Review of Accounting, Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory, Accounting Horizons, and Accounting and Business Research. He also serves on the editorial board of Accounting, Organizations and Society, and Contemporary Accounting Research.

His current work funded by SSHRC and Smith research grants focuses on the role of accounting firms in tax avoidance mechanisms and the financial reporting processes of Indigenous communities.

He regularly contributes to public policy discussions by publishing editorials reflecting the content of his research. Bertrand serves as a member of the Cannabis Oversight Committee established by the Cannabis Regulation Act in Quebec in 2019. Bertrand is also an active member of the Extended External Reporting Advisory Group set by the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board in Canada in 2020 to discuss the future of auditing practice.

Read Bertrand's full bio