Non-standard accounting practices have been gaining in
popularity among Canadian publicly traded companies. Issuers that
rely solely on standard accounting metrics now make up a small
minority of the companies listed in the S&P 500 and S&P/TSX
60.
Many issuers believe that non-standard measures are a better
reflection of performance than Generally Accepted Accounting
Principles ("GAAP"), which for Canadian issuers typically
conform to International Financial Reporting Standards
("IFRS"). Yet there are growing concerns that non-GAAP
measures are being used to inflate earnings and present a more
positive picture of financial performance. These concerns have been
expressed in the media, including in recent articles in the Wall Street Journal and the Globe and Mail and, even more
significantly, have received and are expected to continue to
receive increased regulatory attention. Shareholders and other
stakeholders of public companies are paying attention too. In the
past
