Sheila Fraser, FCA
Former Auditor General of Canada
Sheila Fraser served as Auditor General of Canada from 2001 to 2011, the first woman to hold this position. Born in Dundee, Quebec, Ms. Fraser earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree from McGill University in 1972 and became a Chartered Accountant in 1974.
As Auditor General, Ms. Fraser focussed the Office’s efforts on serving the needs of parliamentarians and ensuring they had objective and reliable information with which to scrutinize government activities and hold the government to account for its stewardship of public funds. She promoted the use of plain language in the Office’s performance audit reports tabled in the House of Commons. At her initiative, Canada was the first legislative audit office to request a review of its performance audit practice in an effort to provide assurance about the quality of its work. In 2004, an international team made up of representatives of the legislative audit offices of the United Kingdom, Norway, France and the Netherlands completed a highly favourable report.
Before joining the Office, Ms. Fraser enjoyed a fruitful and challenging career with the firm of Ernst & Young, where she became a partner in 1981. In the Quebec City office, she was responsible for a wide range of private and public sector clients. She participated in several assignments with the Auditor General of Quebec, as well as with several departments of the Government of Quebec. She joined the Office of the Auditor General of Canada as Deputy Auditor General in January 1999.
Ms. Fraser has always been active in her profession, at both the provincial and national levels. For her noteworthy service to the auditing and accounting professions, she was awarded the designation "Fellow" by the Ordre des comptables agréés du Québec in 1994 and by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario in 2000. She was a 2009 recipient of the ICAO Award of Outstanding Merit, the highest honour that the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario can bestow upon its members. Ms. Fraser has also been awarded honorary degrees from 11 Canadian universities, which recognize her contribution to the fields of accounting, legislative auditing and public administration.
Ms. Fraser served as Chair of the Public Sector Accounting Board of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants in 2004-05. From 2001 to 2011, she chaired various committees of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI). Ms. Fraser currently serves as a public member of the International Federation of Accountants-International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IFAC-IPSASB).