VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - February 23, 2018) - Vancouver's John Helliwell, CPA (Hon.), was awarded an Honorary CPA designation for his outstanding contributions to B.C. and Canada's accounting profession.

John Helliwell, CPA (Hon.), is a Distinguished Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) and editor of CIFAR's World Happiness Reports, conducting this research from his base at the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia (UBC).

Helliwell is also a professor emeritus at UBC. He taught economics at UBC from 1967 to 2002, interspersed with 10 years of visiting appointments in universities and government agencies in five countries. The longest of these was as Mackenzie King Visiting Professor of Canadian Studies at Harvard University in the early 1990s.

There are three generations of accounting Fellows in Helliwell's family. His own foray into accounting began while pursuing a bachelor of commerce degree at UBC. After graduating in 1959, Helliwell moved overseas to study philosophy, politics, and economics at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He subsequently obtained his DPhil in economics and taught at Oxford while travelling back and forth to Canada to conduct research for the Royal Commissions on Banking and Finance (Porter, 1962-64) and Taxation (Carter, 1963-66); in both cases, he used his accounting background to study how policies affected firms' capital expenditures. During this time, he also began helping the Bank of Canada develop its first econometric models: RDXI and RDX2; this work continued after his return to Canada in 1967.

His contributions to Canada's tax, economic, and regulatory policies have had a substantive impact on the accounting profession. He has also contributed to the advancement of the accounting profession by speaking on tax matters for the Canadian Tax Foundation, advising the House of Commons Finance Committee on tax reform (1970-1971), chairing the economic advisory committee of the Federal Minister of Finance (1982-1984), and serving as a senior advisor to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Helliwell was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1976, an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1987, and a Distinguished Fellow of CIFAR in 2017.

Quote from Lori Mathison, FCPA, FCGA, LLB, president and CEO of CPABC
"John's contributions to the CPA profession have been invaluable. We are very pleased to honour him with an honorary CPA designation."

Read the profiles of all the award winners at bccpa.ca/members/recognition-program.

NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: Publication quality photos of the recipients are available.

About CPA British Columbia
The Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia (CPABC) is the training, governing, and regulatory body for over 35,000 CPA members and almost 6,000 CPA students and candidates. CPABC carries out its primary mission to protect the public by enforcing the highest professional and ethical standards and contributing to the advancement of public policy. CPAs are recognized internationally for bringing superior financial expertise, strategic thinking, business insight, and leadership to organizations.