Your CPD requirement
What CPA Ontario requires of every member
The requirement is four figures. Satisfying it across a whole practice, with records that stand up to an audit, is the work. This page sets out both.
Requirements are set, changed and audited by CPA Ontario. Check the current rules at cpaontario.ca.
The obligation
Four figures govern a designation
- Each year
20 hours
At least 10 of them verifiable, meaning somebody other than you can confirm you were there.
- Each three-year period
120 hours
At least 60 verifiable. The annual minimum on its own does not add up to this, so a year at the floor leaves a gap to make up later.
- Professional ethics
4 hours
Verifiable, in every three-year period. This one is never pro-rated and never reduced, even where the rest of a requirement is.
- Declaration
1 June
You declare your hours to CPA Ontario, which audits a sample of declarations each year. A declaration is only as good as the records behind it.
CPAs holding a Public Accounting Licence have further obligations beyond these. Those depend on the licence and are set out by CPA Ontario, not summarised here.
Verifiable hours
Half of every requirement must be independently confirmable
Reading a technical update on a Sunday counts toward a total. It counts as verifiable only where something outside your own memory records it, and half of every figure above must be of that kind.
That is the practical reason a planned programme is worth more than an equivalent number of hours assembled ad hoc. Every course in a season is attended live, attendance is observed and reconciled, and the hours arrive already in the form the declaration asks for.
Four ways a practice falls short
- Ethics is left until the third year, then the only sessions available do not fit the diary.
- Somebody hits the annual minimum three years running and is still short against the three-year total.
- The hours were earned but the evidence was never collected, so the declaration rests on memory.
- A person leaves mid-period and takes their record with them.
Coverage
A programme is designed against the requirement before anything is booked
Our curriculum lead maps the areas a group has to cover, then sequences the programme so the mix resolves by the time it ends. Ethics is placed early, well before the three-year requirement falls due.
What a full season can cover
One example. Length, areas and balance are all agreed with your group before a season is built.
| Requirement area | Hours | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Tax | 12 | |
| Assurance and quality | 9 | |
| Practice and professional standards | 8 | |
| Technology and risk | 6 | |
| Professional ethicsNever reduced | 4 | |
| In this example | 39 |
A group agrees how much it wants to cover, and a full season is scheduled to clear the annual minimum with room, so one missed course does not put anyone short. Groups that want less take a shorter programme aimed at the areas they are behind on.
What you hold at the end
Hours are credited from observed attendance
Attendance is reconciled course by course while a programme runs, so the record assembles itself. A partner sees where each person stands in November, with courses still left to attend.
Participation is human and imperfect, so a record stays open to review and correction. Its purpose is evidence.
Where your firm stands, at any point in the season
Illustrative firm and people. Hours are credited from attendance, not self-reported.
2026/27 season
| Person | Hours | Ethics | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marie-Claude TremblayPartner | 22 | 4 | On track |
| Priya RaghunathanPartner | 20 | 4 | On track |
| Stephen AldertonManager | 21 | 4 | On track |
| Wei Lin ChowManager | 18 | 4 | 2 hours to go |
| Daniel OkonkwoSenior | 14 | 4 | 6 hours to go |
| Hana YoshidaSenior | 20 | 0 | Ethics outstanding |
Ethics is tracked on its own because CPA Ontario requires 4 verifiable hours every three years and never reduces it. A total-hours view would report the last row as compliant.
See what a programme would cover for your practice
Give us your headcount and the areas that matter, and we will set out a programme mapped against the requirement, with a figure per person.
Or email admin@pdconsortium.com with your firm and headcount, or call +1 (416) 306-2072.