How will International Financial Reporting Standards affect the quality of Canadian accounting information?INTRODUCTIONGlobalization has a considerable impact on the economy of 'Today. Differences in regulations and accounting practices in different countries have become a major obstacle to globalization and economic development. International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) mitigate global trade barriers. In order to adapt to an increasingly globalized business environment, Canada's public companies will transition to IFRS by 2011. This move will have a significant influence on Canadian businesses such as financial markets, financial statement preparers , the accounting profession and even accounting students. Investors are eager to understand the differences between IFRS and Canadian GAAP. Public companies should be ready to adopt IFRS in January 2011. Even private companies should adapt their operations to the new environment. As a result, most Canadian businesses are concerned about the issues covered by IFRS. In our report, we will focus only on how IFRS affects the four qualitative characteristics of Canadian accounting information: relevance, reliability, comparability and consistency. The discussion will help investors better understand the accounting information. Generally, IFRS and Canadian GAAP pursue the same objective: to provide information useful for decision-making. Both are principle-based and have the same conceptual frameworks. However, there are still some significant changes between Canadian GAAP and IFRS: the implementation of fair value, going concern exposure, revenue recognition, disclosure of "extraordinary items", costing techniques and segment reporting. (See appendix)This change from IFRS to Canada...... middle of document ......ia.ca/Knowledge/View/Document.aspx?bookID=200803805&documentID=5&productID=181¶graphID=1KPMG . (2005). International accounting standards: do they make business sense? Retrieved March 21, 2008 from http://www.kpmg.ca/en/news/documents/Speech20051128.pdfKPMG. (2006). Financial markets seek more consistent financial information globally – KPMG mining survey. Retrieved March 20, 2008 from http://www.kpmg.com.au/Default.aspx?TabID=712&KPMGArticleItemID=2301Murdoch, Lorie. IFRS: are you ready? Retrieved March 20, 2008 from http://www.camagazine.com/index.cfm/ci_id/34987/la_id/1IAS1Revsine, Collins, Johnson and Amernic. (2004). The social framework of financial reporting. Second Canadian Edition, Prentice Hall, Saudagaran, SM (2004). International accounting: a user point of view. Second edition. Mason, OH: Thomson/Southwest Publishing.