AUGUST 2020 National Professional Development Conference Update INSIDE THIS ISSUE Planning is progressing for the 2020 or less registrants from the same CAGFO National Conference and organization, and; Social Programming 2 we are working hard to ensure that 2. Organization Discount: $1200 for President’s Report 3 AGM Notice registrants have a “next-best-thing-to- four or more registrants from the being-there” experience, with timely same organization. PSAB News 4 and topical presentations, discussions, The Organization discount option is Budget Book vs. Financial 5 and social networking opportunities. Statements - What’s worse? proving to be very popular with some This much-anticipated annual Related Events 6 municipalities planning to register Sponsors professional development conference upwards of 100 finance officers to will still feature the relevant and make use of the unlimited option for exciting presentations and discussions $1200.00. you’ve come to expect from CAGFO but there are also opportunities to When registering, please complete include the whole family in our unique Section 1 for the Organization and add NEW! social programming! your individual delegates in Section 2. CAGFO The pricing will automatically adjust to Events include a Cooking Class with the correct registration option based DISCUSSION MasterChef winner Mary Berg and a on the number of delegates entered. FORUM Mixology demonstration from Erick Rosende. All you need to do is register If you are planning on registering START THE CONVERSATION HERE! 10 or more people, please feel free for the conference and your family can FORUM TOPICS INCLUDE: attend! to submit an excel spreadsheet to [email protected] with the following • COVID-19 Impact and We are very pleased to announce Solutions columns completed for each new group discount registration • User Charges registrant: First Name, Last Name, options for the 2020 CAGFO National Position, Email, Phone. • PSAB Conference. • Financial Statements If you need to add people or make any New this year we are offering group • Taxes changes to an existing registration, rates for the following options: • Audits please complete this change form • Council Reporting 1. Group Discount: $750 for three request. • Technology for Govern- SPONSOR AND EXHIBIT OPPORTUNITIES STILL AVAILABLE! ment Finance Officers • AND MORE! Partnering with CAGFO allows your government, who collectively have final organization to be aligned with an spending authority on billions of dollars Click here to access the association’s commitment to promoting annually. CAGFO FORUM and excellence in government finance. As a start the conversation! CAGFO partner, you will have access to up A virtual exhibit hall will also be offered to 1000 conference participants as well as at the 2020 National Conference. Uset his being included in our mailings to more than opportunity to connect with our delegates 5000 people working in the government and maximize your investment! finance field. Most of these delegates For more info, please contact Lee Gould at are senior decision makers in local and [email protected]. provincial

AUGUST 2020 cagfo.ca Suite 247, 11-300 Earl Grey Drive, Kanata, ON K2T 1C1 (604) 493-2017 Page 1 2020 CAGFO NATIONAL CONFERENCE - SOCIAL PROGRAMMING

Mary will be leading a one- Corporate trainer, ISG Sommelier/ hour cooking class at 7:00pm WSET Spirits Educator with Ultimate EST on Sunday, September Bartending. Erick is a Master 13th. Include your family as Mixologist and Sommelier with 20 you learn to make Mary’s years of bartending and managing Heirloom Tomato Galette experience throughout USA, Brazil, like a masterchef from the Spain, Mexico, Chile and of course comfort of your own kitchen! Canada. He is known as one of From an early age, Mary the all time Pro bartenders, and always loved learning about, is now sharing his vast knowledge experimenting with, and and experience with the new great sharing food. She has spent upcoming bartenders in Canada. most of her life cooking and When Erick is not instructing at baking for those she most Ultimate Bartending School you can cares for. Her love of food has find him managing at Edmonton never faltered and she holds Event Centre, Empire Ballroom, The a strong appreciation for the Treasury, Underground Sound and restorative powers of a good, many other locations for Bar Source home-cooked meal. Canada, entertaining celebrities and Invite your whole family!! The Mary’s signature style of re- VIPs. social programming at the 2020 imagining culinary CAGFO National Conference offers classics while something for everyone. Register maintaining the for the conference and invite your original heart of whole family to learn new skills the dish has helped together from the comfort of your make a passion of own home. cooking for those Mary Berg is a self-taught home she loves into her cook who can pretty much always full-time dream be found in the kitchen. She’s also job. Delivered with a strong believer in the philosophy her genuine and that any good party starts and ends charming persona, right there. Mary creates Television audiences know Mary as recipes that anyone host of her own feature series Mary’s from a kitchen novice to a culinary Erick will be closing out the Kitchen Crush and the Season 3 wizard can master. conference with a free 1-hr demo at winner of CTV’s MasterChef Canada. For more information on Mary Berg, 3:00pm EST on Thursday, September She can also be seen as a regular Food visit www.asmallstove.com. You 17th. Recipes will be provided in Expert on CTV’s and can also follow along with Mary advance for five cocktails including The Show. In addition, on Instagram and Twitter and on a selection of mocktails. just last Fall Mary published her own Facebook. For more info, please visit click here. best-selling cookbook Kitchen Party: Erick Rosende is the Director/ Effortless Recipes for Every Occasion.

AUGUST 2020 cagfo.ca Suite 247, 11-300 Earl Grey Drive, Kanata, ON K2T 1C1 (604) 493-2017 Page 2 President’s Report GOLD SPONSORS Our role, as finance professionals, requires rums for discussions set us apart from other us to be resilient during periods of uncer- conferences and professional development tainty. The last six months has been a chal- experiences. Additionally, we have built in lenge for us all, to say the least. Our focus some networking through a cooking demon- and perseverance has been and continues stration and drink mixology events. to be needed to prevail through this difficult Don’t miss this great opportunity to partici- period of time. The ongoing pandemic that pate, especially when there can be unlimited continues to test us all has undoubtedly pro- participants within your organization at an vided us with paramount experiences and all-in, low cost. For more information on our learning opportunities that have strength- upcoming conference, please visit https:// ened our ability to lead and overcome ob- cagfo.ca/2020-annual-conference/. stacles of significant consequence. As lead- I’d like to thank our staff, Lee, Sam and Anne ers, we are tasked with finding opportunities for rising to the challenge of planning our to guide our organizations to success and first virtual conference! Their enthusiasm, Leading Through Adversity, to prosperity. dedication and hard work is sure to make Our theme for this year’s conference, Lead- this conference a success. ing Through Adversity, is very appropriate This is my last message as President of and suited for this time. The Canadian As- CAGFO. I have had the pleasure to serve sociation of Government Finance Officers you, our CAGFO Membership, in this role for (CAGFO) has been and continues to be the past two years. Over this time, CAGFO here for you with the tools and resources has grown to almost 10,000 Members and you need in order to adapt and to navigate stakeholders, making CAGFO the largest as- through this time. Like so many others, sociation representing and supporting the CAGFO has ‘gone virtual’ with our much-an- interests of Canada’s government finance ticipated national professional development officers. Thank-you for your trust and confi- conference. Our lineup of speakers – Kev- dence in me to lead. in Page, Enid Slack and Michael Puskaric to name a few – are phenomenal. Relevant Noreen Kassam, CPA,CGA topics, engaging sessions and pertinent fo- Director Finance City of Burnaby, BC CAGFO Notice of 2020 Annual General Meeting Notice is hereby given that the Annual • Financial statements and Report of General Meeting (AGM) of the Members of Auditor the Canadian Association of Government • Appointment of Auditor for the 2020 Finance Officers (CAGFO) will take place fiscal year ‘virtually’ on Wednesday, September 16, 4. Election of Directors 2020 starting at 11:30 hours (Eastern Time). Minutes, unapproved audited financial Notice is also given that matters to bebrought statements and the report of the Auditor will before the meeting include the following: be made available as separate documents for view at www.cagfo.ca. 1. Approval of minutes of the Annual Meeting of the Members on, October Should you have any questions please don’t 4th 2019. hesitate to contact CAGFO by email at office@ cagfo.ca or 604.493.2017. 2. President’s Report 3. Treasurer’s Report The draft agenda is available here.

AUGUST 2020 cagfo.ca Suite 247, 11-300 Earl Grey Drive, Kanata, ON K2T 1C1 (604) 493-2017 Page 3 PSAB’S INTERNATIONAL STRATEGY DECISION SILVER SPONSORS At its May 5, 2020 meeting, the Public standards. This means that if a project is Sector Accounting Board (PSAB) voted to undertaken and an IPSAS already exists, approve Option 2: Adapt IPSAS principles the principles of that IPSAS will be used as when developing future standards as a base for developing the corresponding its future international strategy. This Canadian PSAS. When PSAB chooses to decision has been years in the making develop a standard where there is no and involved extensive consultation with equivalent IPSAS standard, the standard Canadian stakeholders. would be developed as they are today. Over the last decade, IPSAS have matured The Board will establish Criteria for and are a high-quality and comprehensive Modifying and Reviewing Principles in set of accounting standards. With other IPSAS that will act as a framework and jurisdictions comparable to Canada provide guidance on when departures adopting or adapting International Public from IPSAS principles are permitted. Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS), Examples of circumstances where the Board signaled its intent to review its modification would be allowed include approach towards IPSAS in its 2017-2021 IPSAS principles that are contrary to Strategic Plan. PSAB’s conceptual framework, or IPSAS BRONZE SPONSORS PSAB considered four options for its principles that are not appropriate for international strategy. They are defined application in the Canadian environment. in Consultation Paper 2, Reviewing Under this option, PSAB will maintain PSAB’s Approach to International Public its role as the sole standard-setter Sector Accounting Standards: authorized to set generally accepted • Option I – Status Quo: Continue accounting standards for all public sector with the existing Canadian-made entities in Canada. It will also continue to standard setting-process. have complete autonomy in developing • Option II – Adapt IPSAS principles Public Sector Accounting Standards when developing future standards. (PSAS) and determining which standards • Option III – Adopt IPSAS except are to be developed. when a departure is permitted. While the effective date of the Board’s • Option IV – Adopt IPSAS. decision is May 5, 2020, the decision PARTNERS After careful review of all stakeholder will be implemented for all new projects input, including significant feedback beginning on or after April 1, 2021. PSAB from the municipal government will be issuing a Basis for Conclusions community, the Board concluded that document on the International Strategy the best way forward is Option 2: Adapt decision in the coming weeks. We IPSAS principles when developing future invite you, the municipal government standards. community, to review the Basis for Under this option, PSAB will continue Conclusions document when it becomes to develop PSAS, but future standards available on the International Strategy would be based on the principles in IPSAS project page.

AUGUST 2020 cagfo.ca Suite 247, 11-300 Earl Grey Drive, Kanata, ON K2T 1C1 (604) 493-2017 Page 4 BUDGET BOOK VS. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS: WHAT’S WORSE? A budget book (sometimes called 3) Graphs & pictures the “financial plan”) is almost always Annual Financial Statements rarely much larger. 200 or 300 pages is include graphs & pictures. They tend actually a small budget document. Finance professionals in government to be very utilitarian documents, For those clients that participate comprised almost exclusively of and education have several daunting in the GFOA Distinguished Budget (frustrating, annoying, I could go tables of data and a few pages of Presentation Awards program, their narrative in the notes section. Very on...) reporting challenges to address guidelines tend to result in very large each year: few of our clients even add a logo or budget books. Some even approach picture to the cover page! 1. the Annual Audited Financial 1,000 pages! Report, Contrast this with the budget book. All of this content means more work. 2. the Budget Book and The vast majority of these documents More tables, more text, and more contain many graphical elements 3. some special purpose reports numbers that must reconcile. including: like the FIR for governments in 2) Considerable emphasis on non- 1. organization charts Alberta & Ontario or the CAUBO financial data report for universities & colleges 2. graphs For the most part, financial While automating the annual statements are focused on financial 3. pictures of ongoing projects, the financial statements is generally data. There are text portions (the finance team, local wildlife, etc. recognized as a major win for your policies and notes), but even then A quick review of one of the budget finance team, perhaps an even bigger they are either relatively static (e.g. book for one of our clients showed win is automating the budget book. your revenue recognition policy is not that in the 425 pages, there were To an outsider, this might be a changing year-by-year) or primarily nearly 300 graphical elements! Just surprise. Isn’t going through an audit about details of the financial data. like the challenges listed above in the worst thing possible? Admittedly, In contrast, it is very common for the large narrative sections, graphical it’s not a lot of fun and yes it is budget book to contain hundreds of elements must be managed and incredibly time consuming; but the pages of narrative. Large narrative updated year after year. To make budget book is worse. Here’s why.. discussions of the following are matters worse, consider that many 1) Much more content required of GFOA Distinguished finance professionals are not expert Budget Presentation Award Program in how to use graphical elements How long are your annual financial participants in a budget book: to maximize communication statements? For many of our clients effectiveness. (governments, universities & colleges, 1. the budget process, 4) A much broader collaboration large publicly traded companies) a 2. entity-wide long-term financial typical set of statements include: policies, In most organizations, assembling • a cover page the annual financial statements 3. organizational charts and is primarily the task of the core • a table of contents 4. descriptions of the organization, finance team. While dozens of folks • 4 statements its community, the population may contribute reconciliations and and background information supporting documents, perhaps only • 20 - 30 notes related to the services provided. a handful of people contribute to the • 4 - 6 schedules Why does this make the process statements directly. All told, the report is perhaps 30 harder? More content means more For the budget book, dozens or pages. For a regional district or a page breaks, larger table of contents, even hundreds of people contribute local government in the USA that more pages to number, etc. In short, to that huge volume of text we must prepare a Comprehensive it means more elements to have mentioned earlier. It might only be Annual Financial Report (CAFR) the problems with. Secondly, much of a few paragraphs per person, but it page count is likely to increase to 200 this narrative changes year after year, seems like every Tom, Dick & Wendy + pages. In any case, there is a lot of necessitating a process of collecting, contribute to the budget book complexity to these reports. organizing and updating hundreds of content. cont’d next page... pages of content. AUGUST 2020 cagfo.ca Suite 247, 11-300 Earl Grey Drive, Kanata, ON K2T 1C1 (604) 493-2017 Page 5 BUDGET BOOK VS. FINANCIAL Partner Events SPONSORS STATEMENTS: WHAT’S GOLD SPONSORS WORSE? Cont’d UPCOMING CONFERENCES September 14 - 17, 2020 That means the team that assembles the C A G F O N a ti o n a l C o n f e r e n c e book needs to track who is contributing to Virtual conference each section. Then they need to know if that individual provided their content yet, and September 22 - 25, 2020 when they do provide the content someone MFOA Ontario has to make sure that it gets reviewed, ap- Virtual conference proved, and finally correctly inserted into the end report. That is a lot of little steps which must be repeated potentially hundreds of October 19-21, 2020 times to arrive at the completed book. CPA Public Sector Conference Virtual conference The End Result November 23, 2020 The end result of these four points is one Association of Manitoba Munici- absolute fact. If your budget document is hundreds of pages bigger than your financial palities Annual Convention statements, budget book automation will be AMM an incredibly valuable accomplishment for your organization. May 26-28, 2021 GFOA BC Victoria, BC

May 30-June 2, 2021 GFOA Alberta James Goligher | Marketing Manager Banff, AB F.H.Black & Company Incorporated

Tel: +1 844 852 5225 ext. 144 June 27-30, 2021 Web: https://www.fhblackinc.com GFOA International Chicago, IL

CAGFO’S WEBINAR OFFERINGS The CAGFO - Bloom webinar series Audit scheduled for Thursday, August continues this Thursday with Financial 27th. This webinar will provide Policy 101 as this week’s topic. It is essential knowledge to ensure a fundamental for municipalities to successful audit and will enhance the have policies in place. Learn the basics municipal professional’s ability to make of policy development and how to a challenging process easier! Register create effective policies that make a here. difference!Register here. CAGFO’s popular Weekly Wednesday The next in the series is Audit Essentials Webinar Series is on hold until after the Tools and Knowledge for a Successful conference .

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