Membership Resignation or Readmission

Resignation

There may arise a time in your career when you decide, for professional or personal reasons that you wish to relinquish your CPA membership. Before you resign your membership you may want to discuss your situation with a Professional Standards Advisor (professionaladvisory@bccpa.ca). In making that important decision, here are a few points to consider.

As a non-member, you must:

• return your certificates (CPA and legacy) to CPABC. Pursuant to Bylaw 507(3), your membership certificates (CPA and legacy) remain the property of CPABC. If your membership certificate(s) have been destroyed or their whereabouts are unknown you must confirm and sign a Declaration and undertake to forward your membership certificate(s) to CPABC if they are ever recovered.
• comply with the restrictions against use or display of professional accounting designations under section 45 – Use of Designations of the Chartered Professional Accountants Act. A non-member may not use or display the CPA designation nor can they imply, suggest or hold themselves out as a CPA.
• comply with the restrictions on provision of services under section 47 – Professional Accounting of the Chartered Professional Accountants Act. Specifically, by not performing an audit engagement or any other assurance engagement and issuing an auditor’s report in accordance with the standards of professional practice published by CPA Canada nor issuing any form of certification, declaration or opinion with respect to information related to a financial statement or any part of a financial statement.
• not use the designation “Certified Public Accountant” or the initials “CPA” in the province of British Columbia, even if you should continue to hold that designation in a US jurisdiction.
• not be permitted to be a member of any CPABC Committee, or to attend or participate in any meetings of CPABC (unless otherwise authorized).
• inform your employer, or commit to inform your employer promptly after acceptance by the CPABC of your resignation, that you are no longer a member of CPABC.
• ensure, if you were to obtain employment in public practice or carry on the practice of public accounting with a CPABC member, that the firm or member is aware you are no longer a CPABC member (under Rule 410 of the Code of Professional conduct a firm or member must obtain prior consent of the Registrar to associate with said former member).

To voluntarily cancel your membership, please complete the membership cancellation request form by logging into CPABC’s Online Services site at services.bccpa.ca.

Once your membership cancellation request has been processed you will receive a membership cancellation confirmation via email. If you have any questions, please email us at members@bccpa.ca.

If you hold a public practice licence, your licence must be cancelled before your membership cancellation can be processed.  If you require additional information on cancelling your licence, please contact publicpracticelicensing@bccpa.ca.

Readmission

Former members who wish to apply for readmission to membership in CPABC will be required to meet the requirements in force at the time of application.

Please refer to the Apply for Membership webpage for further details. If you are a former member and are considering readmission, please contact CPABC at members@bccpa.ca to confirm your individual readmission requirements.

Former members of CPABC who are currently members of another provincial body should complete an Application for Membership by Affiliation.

Please note that under Bylaw Regulation 500/1(1)(a), only the Membership Committee may admit a former member applying for readmission in CPABC. Your application will only be reviewed by the Membership Committee once all required fees have been paid and your readmission application is fully complete.

The information in this document was current and accurate when it was published (see date at the top). While we try our best to update and remove old documents, there is a chance we miss some. Always refer to the most recent version of the Act, Bylaws, or Code (linked) posted on the CPABC website as the wording therein prevails over information in this document. If you think we did miss an update or removal, please confirm with us at ProfessionalAdvisory@bccpa.ca.