Why Vote YES to Abolish a National Consultation?

Friday, October 22, 2021

The vote to abolish a national consultation to ratify a choice made by the National Executive Committee is foremost a saving measure to avoid the costs associated with holding an expensive national election.

The National Executive Committee’s Responsibility

The selection of the external auditors to prepare our financial statements every year is the responsibility of the APS National Executive Committee. In fact, this is the decision that is submitted to a national vote.

An Expensive and Repetitive Consultation

Resorting to a national vote to ratify the selection of the Executive Committee is an expensive process that only formalizes a resolution already adopted by the Committee. Every year, a specialized firm is hired to organize a national vote with the participating members to sanction the Committee’s decision.  At each of these consultations, between 2013 and 2020, the result of the vote is always the same with an approval rate close to 80%. The cost of every consultation is about two thousand dollars.

The Consequence of a Rejection Vote

In case of a negative vote for this recurring annual consultation, it would be up to the Executive Committee to select another accounting firm to produce the financial statements.  A change in service provider will result again in submitting the ratification to the participating members for approval. The responsibility of choosing the accounting firm will always be in the hands of the Executive Committee; the vote consists in confirming the choice of firm chosen by the Executive and since the founding of the APS, this confirmation has ALWAYS been overwhelmingly supported by the members.

What Is the Procedure?

A thorough independent yearly audit of our finances is available to all of our participating members and presented every year at our National Council meeting.

 It involves having an independent external organization (Chartered Accountants firm) that reviews all the financial transactions of the association and issues a report (financial statements) that reflects the organization’s actual financial situation.  The role of the Executive Committee is to choose the appropriate accredited accounting firm to deliver the financial statements by qualified personnel (CPA-Certified Professional Accountants). The delivery is undertaken under the supervision of the National Treasurer (currently Pascal Baczyk) who is also responsible for the bookkeeping and management of the organization’s finances throughout the APS fiscal year. 

The Choice is Yours

To eliminate this requirement, at least 66% of the members who will exercise their right to vote this year must be in support. As you will see, this is the only issue that will be voted on nationally and everyone will be asked to cover the costs. That is why we are asking you to support the proposal to eliminate this procedure, which has lost its purpose over the years.