Our HISTORY

In 1985, Leo again organized the event, and this time he managed to get Stew Henderson, CPA, CA, a tax manager with another large C.P.A. firm in Calgary, to give the tax update, again at the Rimrock Hotel. Leo continued to organize the annual event until 1988, when he decided he would like some help.

After that, several different people volunteered their time to help organize the Forum. Originally the format was for a volunteer to help one year, chair the Forum the second year and assist in the third year. The Chairs, the Forum locations and the year are summarized on the next page. In the late 1990’s the chairs of the previous Forums were asked to stay and assist with the planning. Then in 2000, a company was formed, Small Practitioner Forums Inc. (SPF Inc.)

The original shareholders of SPF Inc. were Neil Probert, CPA, CA, CGA, Brian Newman, CPA, CA, Adrian Nagy, CPA. CA, Terry Green, CPA, CA and Ross McNichol, FCPA, FCA. Brian Lenzin, CPA, CA joined the organizing committee in 2003 and took over from Terry Green, who retired in 2006. Adrian Nagy resigned from the committee in 2012. In 2018, Brian Newman retired and Dan Hershcovis, CPA, CA was added to the organizing team. In 2019 the committee thought they could use some additional help and they contracted with Trina Mellon, of Tall Girl Conference Planning Inc. to help with the organizing of the Forum. At the end of the 2019 Forum, both Ross McNichol and Brian Lenzin retired and Nathan Geib, CPA, CA joined the committee.

Stew Henderson was the main speaker for many years until 1992, although several other individuals were also invited to speak on other topics. Then Chartered Professional Accountants and lawyers from a few different firms were brought in to address the Forum on various income tax issues. From 1993 to 2018, Ray Mack, FCPA, FCA gave a presentation on technology updates.

In 1994, members from the ICAA (now CPA Alberta) began to attend the Forum to speak on changes in the accounting area, and the Forum was expanded to begin Friday morning. In 1996, representatives from Canada Revenue Agency were invited to take part. The Forum was expanded to Thursday afternoon in 2002 and to Thursday morning in 2007. In 2000, a group in Edmonton copied the format from Calgary and started the C.P.A. Forum North in Jasper.