News

Message from CAAF’s Chair of the Board

We are pleased to share with you CAAF’s 2022‑2025 Strategic Plan, which will guide the Foundation through a pivotal period.

Strategic Plan Highlights

When our Board of Directors began its strategic planning sessions, we were entering the second year of the COVID‑19 pandemic. We had already seen the disruptions brought by COVID‑19, but we had also witnessed how quickly the Foundation had been able to pivot. It made us all realize how adaptable we are and how we can leverage what we have learned to help grow the Foundation even further.

Although the word disruption can often have a negative connotation, it can be something that brings incredibly positive outcomes. When faced with disruption, we are forced to take a step back and see how things can be changed or improved. This, in turn, brings a stronger organization with improved services and offerings. This Strategic Plan responds to the disruption caused by COVID‑19 and builds on the improvements that CAAF has implemented since the start of the pandemic, as we navigate the increasing need for virtualization, growth and greater diversity in our membership, and changes in our funding model.

Throughout all this disruption and transformation, CAAF serves an important purpose whose relevance is unchanged: advancing public sector auditing and accountability. As Chair of the Board of Directors, I look forward to seeing how CAAF can support its members so that we can, all together, help governments improve performance, transparency, and accountability for public resources.

Evangeline Colman-Sadd, CPA, CA
Chair, Board of Directors

Message from CAAF’s President & CEO

2022‑2025 will be an exciting time for the Canadian Audit and Accountability Foundation. For more than 40 years, we have been advancing public sector accountability in Canada and abroad. This strategic plan builds on our successes while looking to grow in the goal areas of member engagement, knowledge exploration, and capacity building. For example, we are looking to grow our membership and the products and services that members receive, enhance accountability by researching issues of importance to Canadians, and develop a plan to support certification for performance auditors.

CAAF's 2022-2025 Strategic Plan

Our plan lists just some of the ways we will achieve our goals. Under our overarching goal, our Commitment to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, we will take steps to ensure that all CAAF members, associates, partners, staff, and board members feel welcomed and valued at CAAF.

In the goal area of Member Engagement, we will be reaching out to our members and potential members and be responsive to their needs. To achieve our goal of Knowledge Exploration, we will contribute to the accountability discussion in Indigenous communities and within small municipalities in Canada. Within the Capacity Building goal, we will be continuously improving our professional development offerings, introducing a mentoring program, and looking for other organizations with similar goals to collaborate with.

Finally, we have identified an underpinning goal: Our Sustainability. Our funding model has not kept pace with the growth of our work. We are grateful to the institutional members who have supported us since our inception and recognize that additional support is needed to accomplish our strategic goals. Some of the ways we will achieve this include identifying new funders in Canada to support core funding for research, parliamentary oversight programming, and international development work, delivering certain of our products and services on a full cost recovery basis, and organizing a conference every 2‑3 years, an event which was once an essential anchor for CAAF.

At the heart of the success of CAAF are the members, associates, partners, staff, and board members who work together to advance public sector accountability. Thank you to everyone.

Carol Bellringer
President & CEO
Canadian Audit and Accountability Foundation