Early Canadian financial statement disclosure legislation

              The Accounting Historians Journal Vol. 11, No. 2 Fall 1984
George J. Murphy UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN
EARLY CANADIAN FINANCIAL STATEMENT DISCLOSURE LEGISLATION
Abstract: The Ontario Companies Act of 1907 was one of the earliest legislative enactments to require presentation at company annual meetings, and specify the content of, the financial statements of commercial and manufacturing companies. The study describes the background to this important event and points to the two main influencing forces—the office of the Provincial Secretary and the equally active and informed Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario. The concern for disclosure suggests that Ontario was in the forefront of accounting develop-ment in the latter part of the nineteenth and the first decade of the twentieth centuries.
The turn-of-the-century financial statement requirements of the Canadian Province of Ontario constitute one of the earliest pieces of legislation in English-speaking countries to mandate shareholder disclosure of income statement and minimum balance sheet in-formation for general commercial and manufacturing corporations. The background to this legislation exposes the complex and inter-mingled influences underlying this important event. Such influences as existing disclosure in regulated industries, an active and pro-gressive-minded office of the Provincial Secretary in charge of Companies Act legislation, a political and economic environment that developed a tradition for government intervention and for federal-provincial jurisdictional disputes in commercial and indus-trial activities, an awareness and concern for recommended ac-counting changes in other countries, and a remarkably active and well-informed provincial association of accountants, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario (ICAO), all figured prominently in establishing the legislation.
The author appreciates the helpful comments of his colleagues, Professors V. B. Irvine, W. D. Lindsay, and T. Musser; the use of the libraries of the Ontario Ar-chives, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario, and the Ontario Legis-lature; and the financial assistance of a Leave Fellowship Award from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.