Quote:
Originally Posted by Ducay
As someone in this field; I can tell you that essentially no CA's see it as a good idea, regardless of how close to retirement they are. Every CA worked towards their designation and put in hundreds of times more work and time towards their letters than a CMA/CGA did. The amount of work involved is not even within comparison. If the merger does happen I'd love to have the CMAs/CGAs required to pass some form of qualification exam that doesn't involve multiple choice or group presentations (what a joke) before they can use the CPA designation. Sure, full "merger" of the two wouldn't be for 10 years, but if we're talking the life of a career, that is a pretty big impact if you're going to go from X amount of CA's to 10x as many CPAs in 10 years.
If they merge you can kiss any international reciprocity goodbye. Fat chance in heck that any CA country or CPA country is going to accept a CMA or CGA into their bodies.
Regardless of what Quebec does (they're pretty much insignificant anyways economically), it had better come down to a vote among CICA/ICAA members; at which point it would get quashed like a bug. I can't see Ontario legislating a merger anytime soon (hopefully).
Edit to address OP's question: If you're ready to be a grunt for 3 years and go through a bunch more schooling and studying and have strong technical skills, then go for your CA. If you're looking for a quicker route into industry, then go for CMA. CMA's generally max out at departmental managers in large firms (still pull in good 100k with some experience), where as your limits are much higher with a CA. Really a question of how much time you want to devote to the process.
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Oh, I hope it does come down to a vote, because as a CMA, I'd tell your CA institution to go pound sand. Why the hell would I want to merge with a body that would continue to look down at us? As far as I know, it was the CA body approaching the other two in hopes of the merger, not the other way around, just so they can have access to a lot more funds available to them. Tell the CA body to either suck it up or charge 2 or 3 times more for their annual dues. Afterall, I would think all you rich CAs and the companies you work for can definitely afford it.