Accounting for a nation’s beginnings: Challenges arising from the formation of the Dominion of Canada

Abstract

This article presents an historical study of the accounting issues and challenges arising from the creation of a new nation, the Dominion of Canada. We document the issues associated with combining the accounting of three separate pre-confederation political entities and describe how the first accounting system for Canada was put in place. The study identifies significant challenges resulting from a lack of formal accounting policies, the settling of accounts between the provinces and the new dominion, accounting for the division of responsibilities between the federal and provincial governments, and the poor quality of accounts from the former provinces. This study reveals that Canada’s first accounting system was not developed specifically for the new nation despite the creation of a new political entity, but was inherited from one of the former pre-confederation provinces.