Focus on IFRS

World can
be oyster
with right
set o
skills

'MVFODZ;JO;OFX;BDDPVOUJOH;
MBOHVBHF;JT;B;UPPM;UIBU;
DBO;CF;VTFE;BSPVOE;HMPCF
#Z;%POBMFF;.PVMUPO
THE COUNTDOWN is on. By 2011, Canada will no lon-
ger be GAAP territory. International financial reporting
standards will be fully entrenched — and accountants will
have an opportunity for the first time in several years to
briefly sit back and breathe. They may also have an oppor-
tunity to transform their newly acquired IFRS skills into a
new job in the international marketplace.
That marketplace has a big appetite for accountants
with IFRS training and experience. “There is a link be-
tween IFRS and increased opportunities for employment,”
said David King, president of Robert Half Management
Resources in Toronto.
Here’s why. “IFRS training positions Canadian accoun-
tants for work opportunities overseas and to do business
with international companies,” explained Matt Bootle, an
assurance partner in Ernst & Young LLP’s Calgary office.
The reason is dominance, he added. “IFRS has become
the accounting benchmark for public enterprise report-
ing in more than 100 countries—including some of the
world’s largest capital markets. It is now a common ac-
counting language for global commerce.”
Not everyone speaks that language. In fact, it was a for-
eign tongue in Canada until the Accounting Standards
Board of Canada announced several years ago that IFRS