The Task:

With a partner (i.e. groups of TWO only) find one annual report for a Canadian company, and the annual report of a company in a developed country. You may use the country that you have chosen for any other project.

Developed in this context is essentially any country with an organized stock exchange, or a country that is a member of the OECD.

Note that you should use one foreign annual report and one Canadian annual report with two members in your group. That is, two reports in all.

For Canada use www.sedar.com or a company web-site to download an annual report.

Download the annual reports in pdf format, and print out any pages that you are referring to, to attach to your submission.

The companies must be manufacturers, distributors or retailers (not banks or insurance, and not natural resources) and must be in (roughly) the same industry in both countries.

In the notes to the financial statements, summary of significant accounting policies, find and briefly summarize the accounting policies employed for:

Write a brief report on the extent of harmonization that you see for each of these items. Try to explain why the Harmonization is not perfect!

Submit your report as scheduled above, and retain a copy so we can talk about this in class. You do not need statistics, but you should organize your report to ensure that you explain clearly for each of the three items the apparent extent of between country harmony.

Note that these individual assignments are of low “points” value, but cumulatively will have a significant effect on your learning in this course (and, potentially, on your grade).

This one is 5 points. Make sure you earn them!