TORONTO, ONTARIO, Oct 03, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- Experts from Bowne and Co., EDGAR Online, IASB, IRIS India, and United Technologies Corp. joined XBRL Canada, member jurisdiction of XBRL International, last week in Toronto to discuss recent proposals by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the mandatory use of "interactive data", or XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language), and its inevitable effect on Canadian business.

A diverse group of panellists presented to more than 150 attendees, introducing the concept of XBRL and its applications in various capital markets, the relationship between XBRL and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) with a particular focus on Canadian public companies that would be required to start reporting in 2011, best practices for introducing XBRL into the Financial Reporting Process and shared experiences from participants in the SEC's Voluntary Filing Program.

"As the SEC moves closer to formally accepting interactive data for reporting issuers, we have seen the momentum for XBRL in Canada significantly increase because so many companies in Canada would be directly affected," said Wasim Thaha, Chair, XBRL Canada and Director, Business Development, TNT Filings Inc. "XBRL Canada is committed to educating investor relations officers, financial communications professionals, and all those who are interested in XBRL to help them better understand what it is, and why it's so important to financial reporting. We look forward to hosting more events that not only educate, but facilitate discussion and strengthen relations between reporting issuers and regulators in Canada and the U.S."

Full presentations are available for download on the XBRL Canada blog ( www.xbrlblog.ca). Highlights include:

l Rob Blake, Senior Director, Interactive Services, Bowne and  Co. calls XBRL "high definition reporting", and explains that there are tremendous benefits for all stakeholders of financial information.

l Liv Watson, IRIS India, states: "Today, thousands of companies release financial results to regulatory agencies. The results are presented in unstructured formats which make it difficult for the end user to understand or utilize the information provided without a high level of expertise and effort. XBRL takes the concept of 'the democratization of financial and business reporting data' to the next level, (and will) solve the problems of ineffective communication to investors, inefficient aggregation and analysis, and inefficient creation of financial statements."

l  Tricia O'Malley, Director of Implementation Activities, IASB, explains the natural relationship between XBRL and IFRS, how XBRL can facilitate the transition to IFRS, and how the IFRS taxonomies prepared by the IASB can often provide a better reference for users over the traditional handbooks available.

l  Sue Childs, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, EDGAR Online, says that with XBRL, companies adhere to a common set of reporting elements making financial data substantially more comparable. Because financial information is shared and not replicated, there is no need to re-key data, significantly reducing errors by preparers and facilitating analysis for investors and analysts

l  Simon Hecht, Specialist, Consolidations and Financial Reporting, United Technologies Corp., explains the company's experience in the SEC's voluntary filing program was not a cost, technology or resource burden, and speaks about the market demand for information in XBRL.

About XBRL Canada

XBRL Canada is a not-for-profit consortium of leading Canadian companies and organizations, whose role is to create and maintain XBRL taxonomies based on Canadian reporting standards, to increase the awareness, knowledge and understanding of XBRL and its uses in Canada, and to stimulate and promote the adoption of XBRL in Canada.