Managing Standards Overload

Change, however positive, can be uncomfortable. Change in the midst of crisis can be utterly overwhelming.

So it is that many Canadian CAs now find themselves struggling to deal with the staggering number of recent changes to both Canada's ethical standards and the CICA Handbook standards-the sheer volume of which is now being referred to as "standards overload." And with good reason: In the last two years alone, 24 major changes and 10 major amendments have been made to the CICA Handbook, with 19 exposure drafts and 19 emerging issues abstracts released for consideration.

Two major forces have contributed to this volume of change: (1) the push for global convergence and …