September 2024 CPA CFE results: Congratulations to 3,769 aspiring Canadian accountants

TORONTO, December 8, 2024 – CPA Canada announced this past Friday that 3,769 aspiring accountants successfully passed the profession’s Common Final Examination (CFE) in September. Forty-nine candidates made the national honour roll. The top writer and recipient of the Governor General’s Gold Medal and a cash prize of $5,000 for the highest standing in Canada was Myckaël Charbonneau, who works at Maison d'Hérelle, in Montréal, Quebec. 

Regional gold medals and cash prizes of $2,500 for achieving the highest standing in that part of the country were awarded to:

• Madeline Kiesekamp from Baker Tilly in Halifax, NS (Atlantic Canada)
• Vivian Tso from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in Toronto, ON (Ontario)
• Jacob Jubenvill from Ernst & Young LLP in Calgary, AB (Western Canada) 

“It’s always inspiring to see the next generation of CPAs achieve this important milestone,” says Pamela Steer, CPA Canada’s president and CEO. “This remarkable accomplishment is a testament to their unwavering commitment to excellence and to the high standards and skills that have become synonymous with the CPA designation.” 

Chartered Professional Accountant Gevorg Grigoryan, a CPA program mentor and coach, notes that the national pass rate has been decreasing in recent years: “CPA Canada reported that 3,769 candidates passed the September 2024 CFE, compared to 4,178 in September 2023 and 4,648 in September 2022. According to Grigoryan, “This trend, highlights the increased difficulty of the exam and potential high demand for CPAs in the workforce in the coming years.” 

Gold Medal Award winner works in HIV/AIDS charitable sector

Myckaël Charbonneau works as an accountant at Maison d’Hérelle, an organization that provides various types of housing to people living with HIV/AIDS, with locations across Montréal. As a future CPA working in the charity sector, Charbonneau bucks the trend of traditional September CFE results, which are consistently dominated by students working at public accounting firms. 

"I am proud to show that accounting is broader than public practice and that working for a small charity such as Maison d'Hérelle is a valid career path for CPAs and future CPAs," said Charbonneau, who aspires to pursue a career in academia. Students who work at firms tend to study during the summer—right after tax season—so they can write the CFE in September. 

Of the 49 students who made the honour roll, thirty-two were from Ontario or Quebec, a measure of the size of the student populations in these two provinces. While three of the four gold medal recipients work at accounting and audit firms with a national presence, the size of a public accounting firm — or the sector — is no barrier to top results. 

Several students work at smaller accounting firms, such as Alyssa Andres of Loewen Kruse Chartered Professional Accountants in Burnaby, British Columbia or Yiting Wang of Pahapill & Associates Professional Corporation in Huntsville, Ontario. And several students work in the private sector, whether at blue chip corporations, such as Inshya Shaikh at the Royal Bank of Canada in Toronto, or family-owned companies, such as Carter Janisse of Nature Fresh Farms in Kingsville, Ontario. 

Grigoryan offers congratulations to the writers who successfully passed the September 2024 CFE. “Reaching this significant milestone in your journey to becoming a Canadian CPA is an achievement you should all be proud of.” 

Says Grigoryan, “My advice to future CFE writers is to practise cases and thoroughly debrief the solutions as part of a structured study plan. Make sure to review the student articles here on the Canadian Accountant to find many study tips and CPA exam resources to help you succeed.” 

Colin Ellis is a contributing editor to Canadian Accountant.