Canadian public companies have been required to disclose internal control weakness
(ICW) since 2006. However, these disclosures are neither certified by CEO/CFO nor audited by
external auditors, which has made the reliability of such disclosures questionable. Effective
December 15, 2008, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) added further requirements
for 1) implementation effectiveness evaluation and 2) management certification on ICW
disclosures. These two requirements are viewed as the credibility enhancement mechanisms to
improve the reliability of the disclosed ICW in Canada. Using this evolutionary process of the
disclosure regulation as a natural experiment, this paper examines whether changes in internal
control disclosure regulation affect the reliability of firms’ disclosed ICW.