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CPA profession salutes 6,371 successful CFE writers

Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA Canada) applauds the 6,371 individuals who passed this year’s Common Final Examination (CFE).

TORONTO, November 27, 2020 – Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA Canada) applauds the 6,371 individuals who passed this year’s Common Final Examination (CFE).

A three-day evaluation designed to assess candidates’ knowledge, judgement and ethics, the CFE is a critical milestone of the Canadian CPA certification program. The CPA profession requires individuals to demonstrate the full range of skills and competencies outlined in the CPA Competency Map though their experience, education and examinations.

“In any year, the CFE is recognized as a rigorous and challenging examination. However, 2020 presented a unique obstacle with the presence of the ever-changing COVID-19 situation,” says Charles-Antoine St-Jean, president and CEO, CPA Canada. “Those who wrote the September 2020 CFE displayed impressive dedication and perseverance as they prepared for the exam while living through global health concerns and economic uncertainty.”

The constraints associated with the pandemic meant that the profession needed to determine a way to allow students to write in the safest possible environment while also upholding the integrity of the exam. “A special thank you goes out to all those who made the exam writing possible in what was an unpredictable setting,” adds St-Jean. “So many individuals went above the call of duty out of respect for the students and the work they put in preparing for the exam.”

To ensure that regional public health and safety guidelines were followed during the writing of the CFE in September, the profession took unprecedented steps to provide a safe and secure environment. A major change was that, instead of writing the exam in large writing centres, approximately 10,000 hotel rooms were booked across Canada. This allowed each candidate the ability to write the exam in a dedicated room for the duration of the CFE.

“Studying and writing during an unsettled time must have been very difficult,” says St-Jean. “CPA Canada and the profession commend the successful writers for their achievement in reaching a key milestone on the path to earning the prestigious Canadian CPA designation.”

Michelle Per, from KPMG in Toronto, Ontario is the recipient of the 2020 Governor General’s Gold Medal Award as the 2020 CFE’s top writer. In addition to the award, she receives a cash prize of $5,000.

 

“I was certainly extremely surprised when I found out that I had won the gold medal,” says Per. “Being named the gold medallist is a huge honour and a nice way to cap off this two-year journey.”

CFE HONOUR ROLL HIGHLIGHTS

The CPA Canada regional Gold Medal awards (and cash prizes of $2,500) for achieving the highest standing go to:

  • Atlantic Canada: Mark Joseph Skinner, R.C. Squire & Associates Professional Corporation, Corner Brook (NL)
  • Quebec: Ariane Villemure, KPMG s.r.l./S.E.N.C.R.L., Quebec City (QC)
  • Western Canada: Omar Dhanani, Ernst & Young LLP, Vancouver (BC)

For a complete list of honour roll members, comprised of the top one percent of successful writers, please visit cpacanada.ca/CFEHonourRollList.