Diversity Questions Initiative Update

As part of this year’s membership renewal process, CPA Manitoba asked members to respond to a series of diversity questions. The purpose behind asking these questions was to better understand the current composition of members in our province, which will guide our future planning and programming. 

Thank you for your participation in this initiative. It is because of your willingness to participate, that CPA Manitoba has important data about our members that will drive future efforts to reduce barriers to entry and improve our program offerings. This crucial work will allow us to have a profession that is equitable, diverse and inclusive for all. 

Data Governance
Data governance is of the utmost importance to our organization and your responses will be stored in CPA Manitoba’s secure database, iMIS. Access to the information is strictly limited to the President & CEO; Executive Director, Foundation and EDI Lead; and Director, Ethics & Regulatory Affairs and Registrar. 

To ensure the safety of this sensitive data, we employ robust industry security practices, including Identity Access Management and Multi-Factor Authentication. Additionally, we use the industry-standard data protection algorithm AES 256 bit to encrypt the data. Our system-level data security provides an extra layer of protection, ensuring that only authorized personnel can access highly sensitive data within the system.

Response Summary 
As of Wednesday, May 24 , we have had a 96% response rate to the questions. We will be sharing a full summary of the data collected in our 2022-2023 Annual Report that will be released in June 2023. 

Being the first year that we collected diversity data, we were interested in learning more about the level of engagement our members had with these questions. One indicator of engagement or comfort was the percentage of respondents who chose "prefer not answer". Please see below for the percentage data by question:
 

Note: As part of this initiative, we received positive feedback from the membership. We also received fewer than 10 critical responses from members, which were addressed individually.

Future Focus
CPA Manitoba is currently working with our staff and Board to provide important training in this area. We are also offering several upcoming learning opportunities for members, candidates and students: 

PD Program Offerings
Be a Better Ally: Creating a 2SLGBTQ+ Inclusive Culture
Inclusion: Building a Sustainable Culture of Diversity
Working Together: Four Generations in the Workplace

2023 CPA Prairie Connection Conference Sessions
Accounting for Reconciliation
Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace
EDI Hot Topics for Leaders
Reconciliation Toolbox: A Coffee Talk on Ways to Continue Your Journey

Questions
If you have any questions, please contact Donovan Henzel, CPA, CMA, Executive Director, CPA Manitoba Foundation and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Lead at CPA Manitoba.