PCAOB finally publishes first audit inspection reports of Canadian accounting firms this year

TORONTO, August 16, 2026 – The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has published 2025 audit inspection reports for Deloitte LLP and De Visser Gray LLP, the first Canadian reports it has published in 2026. The US audit watchdog, under deregulatory pressure from the Trump Administration, has seen its leadership replaced and budget reduced in the past year. 

The two audit inspection reports represent different sectors in the Canadian audit industry. Deloitte LLP is the largest of the Big Four accounting firms in Canada; its inspection report indicates that the PCAOB inspected five of its audits. De Visser Gray LLP is a regional firm with one location, in Vancouver, British Columbia; its inspection report indicates that the PCAOB inspected three of its audits. 

As reported by Canadian Accountant, De Visser Gray was censured under the previous PCAOB administration, over repeated use of Canadian Professional Engagement Guide (PEG) audit programs for their US audits. Without admitting or denying the Board’s findings, the firm settled with the PCAOB and consented to a disciplinary order that imposed a civil penalty of $60k, as well as remedial action. 

Deloitte, De Visser Gray do well

According to its inspection report, the PCAOB inspected five Deloitte Canada audits, four in which Deloitte was the principal auditor. The PCAOB focused mostly on revenue and related engagements and found no significant deficiencies. 

Similarly, the PCAOB inspected three De Visser Gray audits, all three of which the firm acted as principal auditor. Here, the PCAOB focused cash and cash equivalents, and long-lived assets, and found no significant deficiencies. 

One area in which PCAOB inspection reports differ from Canadian inspections is the voluntary declaration of conflicts of interest. This reporting feature was first introduced in 2023, under the stewardship of former PCAOB Chair Erica Y. Williams, and has become an interesting source of information about the relationships between auditors and their clients. 

For example, while De Visser Gray did not disclose any instances of apparent non-compliance, Deloitte Canada voluntarily divulged that a member of one audit team had investments its audit clients. The firm also reported one “instance related to services provided by the firm that the lead auditor determined to be prohibited, which consisted of bookkeeping services for a company that was an affiliate of an issuer audit client of an associated firm.” 

Deloitte Canada declared in all instances that its objectivity and impartiality were not impaired. 

Notably, the US audit inspection reports align with the findings of recently published inspection reports from Canada’s audit watchdog, the Canadian Public Accountability Board. As reported by Canadian Accountant, De Visser Gray received a clean sheet from CPAB recently, and Deloitte Canada beat its Big Four rivals in the first firm-specific inspection reports in the history of CPAB. 

US audit watchdog defanged by the Trump Administration

In May 2026, Canadian Accountant asked: It’s almost June. When will the PCAOB publish another Canadian audit inspection report? Now that we have our answer, it will be interesting to see how many Canadian inspection reports are published this year by the PCAOB. 

As we noted at the time: “In the past five years, the US audit watchdog has published 48 inspection reports of Canadian accounting firms. While that works out to almost 10 inspection reports per year, the year 2022 was an outlier, with 18 inspection reports published by the PCAOB.” 

The Trump Administration has sought to deregulate the audit industry largely through budget cuts to the PCAOB. Williams left the PCAOB in July of 2025 at the apparent request of Securities and Exchange Chairman Paul Atkins, a Trump appointee and “a vocal supporter of free-market principles in regulatory policy.” 

After surviving a serious attempt to abolish the Board, the PCAOB had its budget cut in the past year by nine per cent, and a staff reduction of about five per cent. The budget cuts, which included slashing the salaries of the chair and other board member by roughly half, resulted in an 18.4% reduction of the Board’s accounting support fee to $306 million, reducing the cost to public companies and broker-dealers that fund the board. 

In July, the PCAOB announced appointments to its new “Inspections Modernization Council,” which will “will provide perspectives to inform the PCAOB’s efforts to modernize its inspection program and thereby improve audit quality.” Among the members appointed was Stacy Hammett, chief auditor at the Canadian Public Accountability Board. 

Potential changes the IMC will consider include “generating more meaningful outputs for consumers of inspection reports, leveraging technological innovations such as automation and artificial intelligence, and focusing inspections on firms’ systems of quality control.” 

Colin Ellis is a contributing editor of Canadian Accountant.