The Canadian Public Accountability Board (CPAB) published its 2025 Year in Review, outlining progress in the first year of its 2025–2027 Strategic Plan and flagging two near-term changes for the audit oversight regime: a leadership transition and planned new public transparency on inspection outcomes. CPAB confirmed Sonny Randhawa as its next Chief Executive Officer, assuming the role in March 2026 following Carol Paradine’s retirement, and stated it anticipates beginning to publish individual public inspection reports from March 2026. The update reiterates CPAB’s strategic priorities around evolving audit oversight, raising expectations for audit ethics, culture and governance, improving audit quality at smaller firms, and strengthening its regulatory toolkit through increased transparency and consequences. Practical initiatives highlighted include Public Company Audit Summits in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, the Smaller Firms Publication Series, and an interim Audit Quality Insights Report covering observations on technology used in audits (including the growing influence of AI), fraud risk identification and response, audits of group financial statements, and evaluation of accounting policies. CPAB also reported enhancements to its Whistleblower Program, including a streamlined intake process, revised intake policy, and an upgraded third-party hotline platform, alongside outreach to FAIR Canada and the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance. CPAB indicated a fuller update of insights, findings and figures will be provided in its Annual Report in 2026.

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