CA Reciprocity Exam (CARE)

The CA Reciprocity Examination (CARE) allows Canadian provincial CA institutes to measure the professional competence – from a Canadian perspective – of members of foreign accounting bodies who have been assessed by the International Qualifications Appraisal Board as having education, examination, and experience requirements substantially equivalent to the Canadian CA qualification program.

The 2011 CARE

In keeping with the global move to International Financial Reporting Standards, beginning in 2010 the CARE in Alberta no longer tests a candidate’s knowledge of any significant differences between Canadian accounting and assurance standards and those of a membership candidate’s home country. As a result, the CARE is a three-hour, 75-multiple-choice-question, non-disclosed examination that covers Canadian taxation (35 - 45 marks), Canadian business law (10 - 15 marks) and the Canadian CA profession’s rules of professional conduct (20 - 25 marks). The CARE tests knowledge, comprehension and limited application of knowledge but not higher-order skills.

The CARE remains a closed-book examination, in that membership candidates are not permitted to bring any reference materials with them into the examination writing centre. However, please note that the CARE is non-disclosed in that the examination booklets are collected at the writing centres and the examination questions and solutions are not published. Practice sets of multiple choice questions will be available to membership candidates who registered for the CARE Preparation Program to help them prepare.

Preparation for the CARE

A CARE preparatory course (in English) is held annually in Toronto (in late August) and in Vancouver (in September or October). The three-day course covers law, tax, and CA profession's rules of professional conduct. Participants receive practice multiple choice questions with commented solutions as a take-home exercise. Candidates who wish to have more information about the course(s) should contact either:

• The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario (ICAO)
  Web site: www.icao.on.ca
  Telephone: (416) 962-1841 or 1-800-387-0735
• The Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia (ICABC)
  Web site: www.ica.bc.ca
  Telephone: (604) 681-3264 or 1-800-663-2677

You may access 2009 and prior CA Reciprocity Examination (CARE) Questions and Approaches to Solutions on the ICAO website these are not in the current multiple choice format.

2011 CARE Application Form

2011 CARE Information