These bodies are responsible for establishing and administering the qualification process, admission criteria and performance standards within their jurisdictions.

Pre-qualification education is delivered regionally through one of four systems across Canada: The CICA's role – in concert with all provinces, territories – is to develop and maintain consistent, uniform standards for the profession's qualification process.

These standards ensure the portability of the CA designation across Canada and internationally through various mutual recognition agreements.

The institutes are empowered by local laws to regulate and govern the chartered accountancy profession within their jurisdictions.

The CICA works in partnership with and on behalf of the institutes to: Credentials of foreign-trained accountants are assessed according to the following categories:[10] Assessments of foreign bodies, and negotiations of Mutual Recognition agreements are conducted by the profession's International Qualifications Appraisal Board (IQAB), the current status of which is as follows: