XBRL Canada's New Integrated Taxonomy Acknowledged by XBRL International
XBRL Canada is pleased to announce that their new taxonomy, the Canadian GAAP taxonomy, has been acknowledged by XBRL International.  The new taxonomy combines the previous taxonomies for Primary Financial Statements (PFS) and Notes to the Financial Statements and also contains updates reflecting changes in Canadian GAAP made since the previous taxonomies were released.

Although Canada is moving to IFRS for publicly accountable enterprises, Canadian GAAP remains the standard for all private companies, which account for more than 90% of all Canadian companies. The new taxonomy will be suitable for such companies and in future will be maintained exclusively for them.

The new taxonomy can be found at the following links:

http://www.xbrl.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=42

http://www.xbrl.org/ca/gaap/2010-05-05/ca-gaap-2010-05-05.pdf

Call for interest to Public Companies listed in the US who currently file financial reports with the US SEC in IFRS

22 April 2010

The International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) Foundation through its standard-setting body, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), is the independent, private and not-for-profit body responsible for developing a single set of high quality global financial reporting standards for use throughout the world.

XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is rapidly becoming the global standard for electronic financial reporting.  The IASC Foundation has played an important role in encouraging the development of online financial reporting using XBRL.

The SEC rules concerning XBRL submissions from Foreign Private Issuers (FPIs) filing in International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)

On 17 December 2008, the US Securities and Exchange Commission adopted rules that require all US-listed FPIs to submit their financial reports, including their periodic reports, in Interactive Data format, and specifically in XBRL.  According to this rule, FPIs "using IFRS as issued by the IASB will be required to tag their financial information using the most recent list of tags for international financial reporting, as released by the IASCF and specified in the EDGAR Filer Manual".

In short, from 15 June 2011, FPIs filing their Form 20Fs to the US SEC using IFRS will be obliged to submit these filings in XBRL using the IFRS Taxonomy issued by the IASC Foundation.

Request for participation

FPIs, which will be mandated to file with XBRL in IFRS from 15 June 2011, are invited to participate in a pilot initiative being coordinated by the IASC Foundation.  The pilot will focus on FPI use of the IFRS Taxonomy 2010 to tag SEC filings in XBRL.

The aim of this pilot initiative is for IFRS-reporting FPIs to produce real XBRL filings, including block-tagged notes.  This will help to determine and demonstrate that the IFRS Taxonomy is practical for filers and for users of filed XBRL content.  Participating companies should be able to meet the 15 June 2011 target, and to produce filing-quality reports for a recent period prepared in XBRL (tagging level 1) using the IFRS Taxonomy 2010. FPIs from all industries are welcome to participate.

Although FPIs will retain ultimate responsibility for preparing the filings, the IASC Foundation is committed to providing assistance, to review files, and to interact with preparers when specific questions arise.

Time line

The pilot initiative will start as soon as the final IFRS Taxonomy 2010 is released which is, tentatively, scheduled for the end of April 2010.  It is expected that the XBRL instance documents should be made available within six weeks of the taxonomy release.

Companies interested in joining this initiative are invited to express their interest in writing.  The IASC Foundation will accept applications until 15 May 2010.

Contact

• 
  
  Olivier Servais, Director of XBRL Activities, IASC Foundation
  Email: oservais@iasb.org
  30 Cannon Street, London EC4M 6XH

XBRL Canada Webinar on SBR

The SBR Webinar was held last Monday and it was a successful event.

The webinar was recorded and can be viewed by going to the XBRL Canada website (www.xbrl.ca ) and clicking on the link on the main page.

XBRL Canada has also set up a LinkedIn Group (XBRL Canada – SBR Group) to continue the discussion of SBR in Canada and also to provide a forum for learning more about SBR and how it is being applied around the world. Those interested can join the group by going to:

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=3128882&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr

SBR Webcast by XBRL Canada

Yesterday XBRL Canada held its webcast about Standardized Business Reporting (SBR) - how to reduce the government reporting burden using XBRL. The webcast featured Paul Madden, who heads up the SBR initiative in Australia and Canadian consultant George Farkas. The webcast was recorded and is now archived on the XBRL Canada website where you can click one link to get to the actual archive at this site.

SBR Event - XBRL and Red Tape Reduction Initiatives

TORONTO, June 4 /CNW/ - In March 2010, Minister of Finance James Flaherty, announced the formation of a Red Tape Reduction Commission to look into ways to reduce the costs of "red tape" activities. XBRL Canada is holding a webinar on June 7, 2010 at 4:00PM Eastern on the topic of using XBRL to reduce red tape and cut the cost of government compliance. Essentially, XBRL can be used to create an environment of Standardized Business Reporting (SBR) to different government departments and agencies, reducing or eliminating the need for businesses to report in numerous different formats as is now the case.


Australia is a leading example of a country that is implementing an SBR program. Paul Madden, Director of the SBR program in Australia, will speak at this webinar. Canada can learn from the Australian XBRL experience with SBR implementation, as well as the impressive benefits they plan to gain from the initiative. George Farkas, Canadian XBRL consultant and a past Chair of XBRL Canada, will speak on the parallels between Australia and Canada, and explain why SBR will work well in Canada.

Similar initiatives in several other countries have led to large scale implementations of XBRL for the filing of information with Governments. These initiatives have led to significant cost savings and various other benefits which will be discussed in more detail at the webinar.

This is an excellent venue for concerned Members of Parliament and their staff, other members of government and business people to learn more about how XBRL can reduce the reporting burden currently placed on businesses in Canada.

In a late breaking story, it was announced today that SBR is now up and running in Australia. See the story here.

Registration for the webinar is free and available via the XBRL Canada website at www.xbrl.ca.
XBRL Canada is supported and administered by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants.

For further information: XBRL Canada, Gerald Trites, Project Director, (416) 602-3931. Email: gtrites@xbrl.ca

R E P E A T -- SBR Event - XBRL and Red Tape Reduction Initiatives/

TORONTO, May 14 /CNW/ - XBRL Canada is holding a webinar on June 7, 2010 at 4:00PM Eastern on the topic of using XBRL to reduce red tape and cut the cost of government compliance.

In March 2010, Minister of Finance James Flaherty, announced the formation of a Red Tape Reduction Commission to look into ways to reduce the costs of "red tape" activities.

Similar initiatives in several other countries have led to large scale implementations of XBRL for the filing of information with Governments. These initiatives, referred to as Standard Business Reporting (SBR), involve the use of XBRL for all, or a significant portion, of government filings thus providing a single reporting standard, enabling multiple uses of the same tagged data and promoting consistency among the different filing systems. This initiative has led to significant cost savings and various other benefits which will be discussed in more detail at the webinar on June 7, 2010.

This is an excellent venue for concerned Members of Parliament and their staff, other members of government and business people to learn more about how XBRL can reduce the reporting burden currently placed on businesses in Canada.

Australia is a leading example of a country that is implementing an SBR program. Paul Madden, Director of the SBR program in Australia, will speak at this webinar. Canada can learn from the Australian XBRL experience with SBR implementation, as well as the impressive benefits they plan to gain from the initiative. George Farkas, Canadian XBRL consultant and a past Chair of XBRL Canada, will speak on the parallels between Australia and Canada, and explain why SBR will work well in Canada.

Registration for the webinar is free and available via the XBRL Canada website at www.xbrl.ca.

XBRL Canada is supported and administered by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants.

For further information: XBRL Canada, Gerald Trites, Project Director, (416) 602-3931, Email: gtrites@xbrl.ca