CPA Ontario's Welcome Remarks

Host Opening Remarks

Opening Keynote

Topic | ASPE Update: 3856 & 3840 Related Party Transaction

Some of the most challenging transactions to account for are related party transactions.  Those challenges become even more complicated when they also involve financial instruments.  This session will provide an overview of the current standards and the known challenges and our plans to address these challenges based on feedback we received on our Detailed Review of ASPE.

Key Takeaways:

• Gain an understanding of known challenges in accounting for related party transactions and financial instruments.
• The suggested solutions to some of these challenges proposed in our Detailed Review of ASPE Consultation Paper and the feedback we received on these proposals.
• How our research on Related Party Transactions will give us a path forward.

Topic | Compilation Engagement & Quality Management CSQM1 (Implementation Useful To Providers)

Topic | Building Future-Forward Tech Teams

The top initiatives for Canada’s tech leaders in 2025 reflect a dual focus on increasing business resilience and boosting innovation but ongoing talent shortages and other staffing challenges complicate their plans for these projects. To help Canadian tech leaders effectively execute their priorities and drive business growth, this presentation uses proprietary data and insights to explore both the impact of skills gaps on critical technology initiatives like managing technical debt, modernizing enterprise systems and driving ongoing digital transformation, and solutions for addressing them. These include strategies for finding the expertise Canadian tech leaders need, retaining the talent they have and developing next-generation teams that remain competitive and collaborative in a rapidly evolving tech environment. 

Topic | Sales Tax Update
 

Key Takeaways:

• How to evaluate interprovincial sales tax obligations and determine when GST/HST is no longer the only tax you or your clients need to be registered for,
• The risks associated with clients exiting the short-term residential rental market, and
• How HST rebates are being used to kick start new housing construction in Ontario.

Key Takeaways:

• How to assess succession readiness beyond financial and tax planning.
• The role of leadership, systems, and team structure in successful transitions.
• Strategies to support continuity, reduce risk, and maintain value through transition.

Closing Keynote

Topic | Tariffs & Economic Uncertainty: What SMPs Need to Know

Join BDC Chief Economist Pierre Cléroux – as part of Small Business Week 2026 – for a focused discussion on what you need to know as economic uncertainty and structural change persist. This keynote will explore BDC’s economic outlook and the implications of U.S. trade policy and geopolitics, as Canada asserts its economic sovereignty. It will also focus on practical strategies and supports to help your clients – whether it is accessing capital, boosting productivity, navigating business transitions, or driving sustainable business growth.

Host Closing Remarks

Opening Keynote

Topic | Leadership: Team Training, Systems & Effective Management (Leading Transformation with the Curiosity Compass)

Most organizations don’t fail because they lack ideas—they fail because they ignore the sparks of curiosity already inside their teams.

In this powerful, story-driven keynote, innovation executive and governance leader Fenton Jagdeo introduces the Curiosity Compass: a practical, battle-tested framework designed to unlock innovation at all levels of an organization. Built from over a decade of hands-on work with Fortune 500s, billion-dollar boards, and high-growth startups—and backed by $4 million worth of mistakes (and wins)—this isn’t just another innovation theory. It’s a proven tool that works.

Fenton takes the audience on a journey through some of the most iconic cautionary tales in business—Kodak, Blockbuster, Nokia—revealing what happens when organizations cling to the familiar while the world changes around them. He then shows how leaders and employees alike can use curiosity to challenge assumptions, borrow ideas from other industries, rethink broken systems, and broaden stakeholder impact.

If you’ve ever wondered how to go from “we should innovate” to “here’s how we do it,” this keynote gives you the map—and the compass.
 

Key Takeaways:

• A Repeatable Innovation Framework: Learn the Curiosity Compass—a four-direction model that helps individuals challenge assumptions, borrow ideas from other industries, fix broken systems, and consider the broader ecosystem.
• Micro-Innovation as a Strategic Advantage: Why big change often starts with small, everyday ideas—and how to surface them in your organization.
• Scenario Planning & the Burning Platform: Understand how to use curiosity to guide tough decisions in moments of risk or disruption.
• A Human-Centered Innovation Mindset: Empower your employees with tools that actually work—no jargon, no “innovation theater,” just action.
• The Courage to Leap: Leave with a clear sense of what’s at stake if we don’t innovate—and how curiosity helps leaders and teams take bold, informed action.

AI Workshop

Topic | AI Automation: Practical Claude Use cases for Small & Medium Practitioners

Most accountants who use AI today treat it as a chat tool, typing fresh prompts every time and losing the leverage of work they have already done. Claude Skills change that by letting you bottle up your firm's institutional knowledge such as how you prepare an income statement, how you structure a client dashboard, how you analyze capacity into reusable, on-demand capabilities that any team member can call with one click. The result is consistency across staff, faster turnaround on recurring deliverables, and a growing library of firm-specific AI assets you own and control rather than rent from a third-party vendor. This session gives you a practical foundation you can apply across assurance, tax, advisory, and internal operations work, with a particular focus on the financial reporting and analytical workflows that consume the most staff time.
 

Key Takeaways:

• Understand what Claude Skills are, how they differ from one-off prompts, and why they matter for firms doing repeatable analytical work.
• Identify which workflows in your practice (financial statement prep, variance analysis, working paper review, client reporting) are best suited to be turned into skills.
• Build a custom Skill from scratch using Claude's built-in Skill Creator – no coding required, the AI walks you through clarifying questions to lock in the right output.
• Use Anthropic's pre-built Finance, Data, and Operations Skills for real accounting tasks including generating income statements from raw GL data, building interactive client-facing dashboards, and capacity planning.
• Combine multiple Skills in a single workflow to move from raw data to insights – e.g., GL data → income statement → interactive dashboard → operational overlay.
• Leave with working Skills saved to your Claude account, ready to use immediately on real client engagements the same week.

Speakers: Matt McGuire, FCPA, FCA, Co-Founder of the AML Shop & Adam Feldman, Risk Management and Technology Principal at the AML Shop

Topic | AML: Qualifying Activities and How it Applies to Specific SMP Firms

Since FINTRAC levied a monetary penalty against a medium-sized accounting firm last year, and the potential penalties have increased 40x since, FINTRAC compliance has been on the mind of participants across the accounting sector. But did you know that accountants are only required to comply with federal anti-money laundering regulations when conducting certain qualifying activities? Due to a lack of understanding of what constitutes a qualifying activity, many practitioners inadvertently fall into scope simply by performing routine tasks.

This interactive Q&A session is designed to help you "scope" your own practice. Bring your specific service offerings to the table for a live analysis of:

• Whether each offering is likely to result in qualifying activities.
• The regulatory obligations that result from the likely qualifying activities.
• How the service may potentially be offered without engaging in qualifying activities.

Topic | Risk Management & Internal Controls For SMPs

As small and medium practitioners navigate increasing regulatory complexity, digital transformation, and client expectations, effective risk management and internal controls are becoming critical to firm sustainability and growth.

This session will provide a practical, implementation-focused perspective on how SMPs can design and strengthen internal control frameworks without adding unnecessary complexity. We will explore common risk exposures across tax, client data, workflow processes, and technology environments, along with actionable strategies to mitigate them.

Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of how to build scalable, efficient controls that support both compliance and operational excellence.
 

Key Takeaways:

• How to identify and prioritize key risk areas within an SMP environment.
• Practical internal control strategies that can be implemented without large teams or infrastructure.
• How to leverage technology and workflow design to strengthen controls while improving efficiency.

Key Takeaways:

• Identify recent and emerging Canadian tax developments that may affect planning, compliance, and advisory work for private clients and businesses. 
• Understand how current tax changes, CRA positions, budget measures, and case law developments may create practical planning opportunities, risks, or client communication points.
• Recognize key tax policy trends and unresolved issues that advisors should monitor when providing tax planning recommendations in 2026 and beyond. 

Closing Keynote

Topic | Revolutionizing Tax Research with AI

Host Closing Remarks