Introduction
We issued our Draft 2026-2029 Strategic Plan for comment in April 2024. It builds on the foundation of our previous strategic plan, leverages our emerging issues monitoring process, and reinforces our commitment to tailored engagement.
Extent of feedback received
The Draft 2026-2029 Strategic Plan was promoted to thousands of interested parties through The Standard newsletter and LinkedIn.
We invited any interested party to respond to a Connect.FRASCanada.ca survey. We also welcomed the opportunity to meet or receive written responses from any interested party.
In total, we received 50 survey responses, two written responses, and one meeting invitation.
Key messages we heard and how we responded
The following is a summary of what we heard and how we’ve responded in both our final 2026-2029 Strategic Plan and in our 2025-2026 Annual Plan activities:
Primary themes
Broad support for our goals
We moved forward with our widely supported goals.
Calls for further support of audits of less complex entities (LCEs)
We strengthened our focus throughout our planned objectives to support audits of LCEs and addressing scalability and proportionality within the Canadian Auditing Standards.
To achieve our planned objectives we have a newly launched Audits of Less Complex Entities Working Group.
Other themes heard
Technology
We reinforced the increasing impact of technology in the audit and assurance landscape.
We also established a new Audit Evidence and Risk Response Advisory Group who will be looking at the impact of technology in the Canadian Auditing Standards.
Sustainability
We continued to recognize sustainability as an ongoing priority.
This focus can be seen in our work on our new sustainability assurance standard.
Engagement
We maintained the prominence of engagement with our community and continue to prioritize diverse, tailored engagement strategies.
Support for implementation and guidance
We reinforced our collaboration with others in the assurance ecosystem who support the implementation and application of our standards.
Evolving ecosystem
We remain committed to collaboration and engagement with all interested and affected parties; and while the ecosystem is evolving, our work and commitment to developing high-quality assurance standards remains unchanged.
Due process matters
We approved the 2026-2029 Strategic Plan at our March 2025 meeting.
Prior to our approval, the Reporting and Assurance Standards Oversight Council reviewed our activities relating to the development and finalization of the 2026-2029 Strategic Plan.
Next steps
For detailed activities, we plan to undertake in the first year of the 2026-2029 Strategic Plan, refer to our 2025-2026 Annual Plan.
As described in the Strategic Plan, we will measure achievement by setting out specific activities in annual plans, measuring and reporting annually on the performance of the specific activities, and completing regular performance assessments to evaluate progress toward achieving the Strategic Plan’s objectives.