Certified General Accountant (CGA)

Certified General Accountant (CGA) is the designation of professionals who are jointly members of the Certified_ General Accountants    Association of Canada (CCA-Canada) and a provincial or territorial CGA association or a CGA association overseas. Provincial, territorial  and offshore CGA affiliate   associations  work collaboratively  with CGA-Canada as part of a federation. The national association, first known as the Canadian Accountants' Association, was founded in 1908 by a trio of Canadian Pacific Railway accountants in Montreal, Quebec. Five years later, in 1913, the General Accountants' Association, as it was then known, was granted a charter from the government of Canada. By the mid-1940s, association chapters were established from coast-to-coast. Provincial, territorial and regional (offshore) chapters were later established under their own Charters.

CGA is an accounting professional with expertise in finance, taxation, business strategy, editing, management and business leadership. CGAs must meet the education, experience and examination requirements established, and regularly enhanced, by CGA-Canada. CGA-Canada had 47,500 members and 25,500 students in 2009, making it the fastest growing and second largest professional accounting designation in Canada. The CGA program of professional studies is offered in Canada, Bermuda, the Caribbean, Hong Kong and mainland China. CGAs work throughout the world in industry, commerce, finance, government, public practice and the not-for-profit sector.