Written by Bob Schneider Posted March 23, 2007
What do John Candy, Mary Pickford, Fay Wray, and Lorne Greene have in common? All were portrayed on Canadian postage stamps last year to celebrate the nation's rich tradition of providing superb (well, competent) talent to Hollywood. I knew John Candy was Canadian, but it was disconcerting to learn that the Lord of the Ponderosa and pa to Hoss and Little Joe was actually born in Ottawa.
The nation's capital was recently the scene of a somewhat different happy event: the Third Annual XBRL Canada Conference: Better Government Reporting -- XBRL for the Public Sector, held February 13 and 14. Although the weather outside was (apparently) frightful, the speeches inside were definitely insightful. I've already written about the outstanding presentation of Harm Jan van Burg on the Dutch Taxonomy Project. Here are a few other speeches that are worth your attention. (I've included the day and time of the presentation for easy location on the webcast page. Some of the recorded speeches contain the accompanying slides and some don't. Because of space limitations, I've left out worthy presentations; please feel free to click the Comments link below to discuss them.)
The opening session was appropriately devoted primarily to Canadian topics. Cameron McInnis (February 13, 13:00), a manager with the Ontario Securities Commission, discussed XBRL issues vis-a-vis Canadian securities regulation. Not surprisingly, many of the topics were similar to those in the US, such as making the financial community more aware of XBRL. Following the US lead, the Canadian Securities Administrators is launching a voluntary filing program (VFP) through SEDAR (similar to the SEC's EDGAR) and will begin accepting XBRL filings in May.
Mr. McInnis directly addressed the question of why Canada isn't moving faster to adopt XBRL. He cited competing priorities, such as introduction of IFRS in Canada over the next few years; evolving software; incomplete taxonomies; XBRL's complexities; and lack of demand from the financial community.
Liv Watson of EDGAR Online is no doubt a top answer to the question "Who would you most like to have dinner with in the XBRL field?" Her two talks offered sage judgment and keen observation, and were replete with great war stories and fun asides. In her first presentation (February 13, 12:30), she emphasized the enormous benefits derived from XBRL as a supply chain standard. She described how XBRL facilitates the reusability of data, which electronic publishers have traditionally ignored. She also discussed the usefulness of interactive data for both external, and, especially, internal reporting, as well as for the central management of controls. With Canada's own VFP to begin soon, she commented on the challenges the government faces in getting companies to participate, and what can be learned from the experiences of the SEC.
In her second presentation (February 14; 11:25), Ms. Watson discussed at length how EDGAR Online adopted XBRL for its financial data products. Building on her previous talk, she discussed about the experience of United Technologies in the SEC's VFP and the advantages companies can gain from participation. These include eliminating the XBRL learning curve, establishing a process for control, influencing the development of taxonomies, and, particularly for small-cap firms, facilitating analytics for investors.
Corey Booth, Chief Information Officer of the SEC (February 14: 9:40), discussed the workings and missions of the Commission; Internet-based disclosure through EDGAR; recent interactive data initiatives, including taxonomy development; and the promise of interactive data for helping the SEC achieve its goals.
If time is limited, go to Slide 89 and push the time slider to 38:00 to hear Mr. Booth discuss the ongoing strategic challenges facing the Commission. He talks about the amount of structure various SEC documents contain, and asks how much structure they should contain. He elaborates on changes in disclosure requirements; flexibility issues in disclosure, including questions surrounding extensibility; whether "dumbing down" disclosure is a good idea; and the issue of assurance vis-a-vis XBRL statements. He also discusses the practical and technical challenges of accommodating flexibility.
Jon Wisniewski of the FDIC gave a talk entitled Business Process Through XBRL (February 14: 10:45). What I found especially interesting was his description of how government agencies in financial areas in this case, the FDIC, the FRB, and the OCC (Controller of the Currency) are collaborating to implement XBRL. Mr. Wisniewski's discussion of Call Reports before and after XBRL will be familiar to some readers; but if you're new to the interactive data field, I strongly encourage listening to his entire speech.
Terry Lutes (February 14: 13:00), now a consultant with Alluvion, was formerly with the IRS and is an expert on XBRL in tax administration. He began his presentation with a global overview, citing the Netherlands, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand as leaders in adopting XBRL for tax needs. He emphasized that in most countries it's tax administration that produces the largest share of administrative requirements for business. This gives taxing authorities a key role for reducing the burden of government and taking a position of leadership in XBRL implementation.
As with all the speeches I've recommended, I encourage you to listen to his entire talk. However, Mr. Lutes's slides (which begin at 128) are unusually straightforward, and you can grasp the main points of his speech simply by reading them.
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