Regina is ready for us!

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Lorrie Schmalenberg

(President)

City of Regina, SK

Kelly Gibson (Past-President)

Town of Banff, AB

Noreen Kassam

(Vice President)

City of Burnaby, BC

Victor Mema (Treasurer)

City of Nanaimo, BC

Rick Wojtkiw

Sturgeon County, AB

Lindsay Schneider

City of Whitehorse, YT

Katherine Macdonald

City of Yellowknife, NT

Jason Turnbull

City of Saskatoon, SK

Kelly Lemoine

City of Winnipeg, MN

STAFF

Susan Broadfoot

Sam Weller

Penny Bruin

WESTERN CANADA

August 2017 Page 1

Inside this issue:

Presidents Report

PSAB report

2

GFOA Family 3

Don Drummond at CPA

Public Sector Conference 4

Proposed name change 5

Regina Conference 6

westcan.gfoa@shaw.ca

(250) 598-6871

www.westcangfoa.ca

When the City of Regina offered to host our

2017 conference we were happy to be back in

Saskatchewan, but never expec-

tined this to be one of our larg-

er conferences. However, the

City has worked its magic on

our delegates. Perhaps it’s the

reputation for friendliness; per-

haps it’s the central location in

Canada; perhaps it’s the great

speakers we have attracted;

perhaps it is a combination of all

three; but the result is that we

have just as many delegates reg-

istered for Regina as we had at

this point in time last year for

Kelowna.

Some of the highlights are

shown in the text box on the

right, but we particularly want

to draw your attention to the Welcome Re-

ception on Tuesday night which will be held at

the RCMP museum where you can meet old

Canadian Economic update. We are delighted to announce that Beata Caranci

will be presenting the 2017 Canadian Economic

update this year. For more than 17 years, she has

conducted analysis on global economies and finan-

cial markets. A sought-after and respected com-

mentator, Beata travels across North America

speaking about economic and financial trends with

TD clients and major media outlets.

Beata holds a Master’s Degree in Business Eco-

nomics. Prior to joining TD, she worked for nearly

four years on a trading floor providing economic

analysis to foreign exchange, money market and

bond desks.

Beata Caranci,

Chief Economist TD Bank group

acquaintances and make new friends

(buses will be provided). Our program will

focus on the role of the

finance officer with dis-

tinguished CPA’s like

Craig Reynolds and Ed

Harrington sharing their

experiences. The PSAB

update on Wednesday

will be followed by dis-

cussion on Performance

Management on Thurs-

day. Interspersed will be

many sessions that will

appeal to a variety of

interests.

We are delighted to

have Canada’s soccer

goal-keeper, Karina Le-

blanc speaking on Thurs-

day morning and please make sure you can

attend the Gala Banquet on Thursday night

followed by an entertaining Game Show .

Conference Highlights

Tuesday

• Pre-conference sessions

• Welcome reception

RCMP Museum

Wednesday

• Craig Reynolds—Keynote

• Ed Harrington—Keynote

• PSAB Update

Thursday

• Karina Leblanc—Keynote

• Professor Jim McDavid

• Gala Banquet

• Game show

Friday

• Great debate

• AGM

• Economic update

Page 2 August 2017

President’s Report: Lorrie Schmalenberg

This year I have the double honour of being president and welcoming you all to

my home province and city for our conference in September. If you have never

been to Regina, September is a great time to visit as the weather is typically warm

and if you haven't visited us in a while, come see how we've grown.

On another note, we will be voting on a name change for our organization.

Because we deal with national rather than provincial issues at our conferences,

our content is relevant to finance offices east of the Manitoba border. However,

many seem reluctant to attend because of our name.

After much discussion, consultation and soul-

searching , we conducted a survey and found that

the majority of our members agreed that a change

of name would support our vision. We invite you

to read the article on page 5, ask whatever

questions you need to and then vote in favour of

moving forward with this at our AGM.

WESTERN CANADA

PSAB Report:

2017 HOSTS

Lorrie Schmalenberg, CGA

Manager, Corporate Accounting

Corporate Services

City of Regina, Saskatchewan.

lschmale@regina.ca

PARTNERS

We would like to connect with stakeholders to ensure they’re aware of this

new initiative at PSAB – livestreaming PSAB’s Public Sector Accounting Discus-

sion Group upcoming November 17, 2017 meeting.

Some background…

PSAB established the Public Sector Accounting Discussion Group as a regular

public forum at which issues arising on the application of the CPA Canada Public

Sector Accounting (PSA) Handbook can be discussed.

Why livestream?

PSAB is committed to inclusivity and understands not all stakeholders wishing to

participate in a Discussion Group meeting as an observer can attend the meet-

ings in Toronto. Offering the meeting via livestream, free of charge, can hopeful-

ly help those stakeholders without the budget or time to attend in person.

Our landing page on this livestreamed event can be found here:

http://www.frascanada.ca/standards-for-public-sector-entities/public-sector-

accounting-discussion-group/upcoming-meeting/item84760.aspx

August 2017 Page 3

WESTERN CANADA

GOLD SPONSORS

GFOA Committee

on Canadian Issues

The Committee on Canadian Issues

works to meet the unique needs of

GFOA's Canadian members. The

committee has 19 members and two

advisors. Committee members are

drawn from 9 of Canada's 10 prov-

inces, including also the Northwest

Territories.

View the gfoa.org website

for a full list of members.

Upcoming GFOA

Conferences September 13th-15th, 2017;

GFOA of Western Canada in Regina, Sas-

katchewan.

September 20th-22nd, 2017;

MFOA conference at Blue Mountain Resort,

Ontario.

October 23rd-24th, 2017;

CPA Canada - Public Sector Conference,

Ottawa, Ontario.

May 6th-9th, 2018;

GFOA of United States and Canada in St.

Louis, Missouri.

May 31st-June 1st, 2018;

GFOA of BC. Kelowna, BC.

June 3rd-6th, 2018;

Alberta GFOA, Kananaskis, Alberta.

September 2018;

GFOA of Western Canada in Winnipeg,

Manitoba.

May 19th-22nd, 2019;

GFOA of United States and Canada in Los

Angeles, California.

Alberta GFOA 2018 Conference: Kananaskis

Visit website: https://www.gfoa.ab.ca

Visit our website

Municipal Finance

Officers of Ontario.

Visit our website

The GFOA Family in Canada

SILVER SPONSORS

Page 4 August 2017

WESTERN CANADA

CPA Canada recently had a Q&A with Don Drummond, Stauffer-Dunning Fellow in

Global Public Policy and adjunct professor at the School of Policy Studies at Queen’s

University. He is also a keynote speaker at the 2017 Public Sector Conference.

CPA Canada: How can public servants – in-

cluding CPAs, economists and other financial

professionals in government – foster innovation

in the broader Canadian economy?

Don Drummond: Public servants can foster

innovation by playing a more powerful role in

providing information. A survey by Deloitte indi-

cated that one-third of businesses that were

seriously under-investing relative to competitors

did not know this was happening. Canadian busi-

nesses must expand beyond the North American

market but often need help in doing so. Innova-

tion does not always mean being a world leader

in something. Adapting best technologies and practices and using global value-added

chains can turn a company and a country into a global economic powerhouse.

CPA Canada: Most forecasters predict a "new normal" era of slower economic

growth rates than in the past. What are the implications for federal, provincial and mu-

nicipal governments?

Don Drummond: Governments are going to have to restrain spending growth to a

pace considerably slower than in the 2000s. Healthcare spending will be a particular

challenge because that is where the ageing demographics will hit harder. The combina-

tion of slower economic growth, slower revenue growth and an ageing population will

force all governments to be more efficient and effective in the public services they deliv-

er. Otherwise they will not be able to provide the services their residents want and

need and remain fiscally sustainable.

CPA Canada’s Public Sector Conference is October 23-24, 2017 in Ottawa, ON. Can’t

make it to Ottawa? Attend the conference virtually from anywhere in Canada!

Don Drummond to speak at

CPA Public Sector Conference

FEATURE SPONSOR

August 2017 Page 5

WESTERN CANADA

BRONZE SPONSORS

What’s in a name? Who are we?

GFOA of Western Canada is an organization that produces annual conferences for

government finance officers in Canada. For over 40 years, we have been providing

networking opportunities, professional development and the opportunity for our

members to meet with providers of relevant products and services. Our membership

is free for individuals and we are governed by an elected board with up to two mem-

bers from each province.

Where are we going?

As most of you know, we started a renewal process in 2015, changed our vision to

shift our focus to national issues and changed our bylaws to open our membership to

all finance officers in Canada. Since then, we have signed up over 1,000 members, re-

cruited 4 new board members and organized three successful conferences with a na-

tional focus in our program.

Why do we want to change our name?

We’ve been successful in bringing a national focus to our conference program, but not

so successful in attracting delegates from eastern Canada. They tell us that our name

is one of the issues. We surveyed our full membership and a clear majority both sup-

ported our direction and were in favour of a name change. The most popular option

was CAGFO (Canadian Association of Government Finance Officers). The board ap-

proved this suggestion as it is Canadian, but does not create confusion with any of our

partner organizations.

How will this impact what we do?

We will not be changing our operations. We will still focus on offering an annual con-

ference. Our staff and contractors will still operate from the west; the majority of our

members and board are from the west; and for the near future, our conferences will

be in the west. The difference will be that it will be easier to attract finance officers

from across the country to our conferences.

Will this change our relationships with other organizations?

We are proud to be a part of the GFOA family which comes under the umbrella of

the GFOA of the US and Canada and includes the GFOA of BC, the GFOA of Alber-

ta, the GFOA of Saskatchewan and the MFOA in Ontario. We have been working

cooperatively with all these organizations for many years and do not see a name

change as impacting any of these relationships. If fact we see that it will stimulate in-

terest in GFOA across Canada especially in the 7 provinces and three territories who

do not have a provincial organization.

How do we proceed from here?

A special resolution will be presented at our AGM in Regina in September and the

membership will decide whether to proceed with the name change.

Page 6 August 2017

WESTERN CANADA

Trade Show Our trade show for 2017 is now full

Regina, Saskatchewan

September 13th to 15th, 2017

Sponsorships We welcome enquiries from poten-

tial sponsors. Please contact us at:

Westcan.gfoa@shaw.ca

Delegate Registration

The delegate price is $650.

We have room for more delegates.

Register here

Hotels Rooms

The conference is being held at the

Hotel Saskatchewan, part of the

Marriott group. We have a block of

rooms reserved at $155 per night,

You can book a room online here.

Or phone: 1-306-522-7691. to get

on a waiting list.

If our block is full when you try to

register, we have booked rooms at

the Delta at the same price.

Reserve a room here.

Preconference sessions

We are offering 2 day-long pre-

conference sessions on Tuesday 12th

• Business Cases - GFOA of BC

• Asset Management - MFOA

Saskatchewan GFOA are also having their

annual meeting that day at the Hotel