Atchison Palmer Leslie Chartered Accountants - who are we?

A little history...

In 1984, long time Duncan resident Les Atchison started
an accounting practice. In 1997, Alex E. Palmer became
a partner, thus forming Atchison Palmer Chartered
Accountants. In August 2009, Les sold his interest in
the firm although he still continues to work with clients.
In August of 2009, Tammy Leslie became the firm’s
newest partner changing the firm’s name yet again to
Atchison Palmer Leslie Chartered Accountants or “APL”.

Alex E. Palmer, B.Sc., C.A.

Alex Palmer has been a partner in the the firm since 1997 and leads our audit team in his "hands on" involvement in the examination of an organization's records and accounting controls. His leadership approach ensures the audit function is carried out efficiently and reports are issued in a timely manner. By performing interim audit examinations, in addition to the year-end audit services, Alex provides our clients' management with current recommendations for immediate improvements in accounting system controls. His annual interim "management letter" is issued to the organization's Board of Directors and is part of APL’s helpful approach in our services for our clients.
Alex's professional areas of interest are small business, taxation and audit.

Alex is a true westcoaster, raised in Campbell River. He attended the University of Victoria. and articled with Deloitte & Touche in Prince George, performing audits in both Forestry and Non-Profit organizations. After receiving his CA designation in 1992, Alex joined Schmitz & deGrace Chartered Accountants, as the senior CA in charge of audits. Alex has been very involved with a large number of native band audits.

Alex and his young family have been Cowichan Valley residents since 1996 and Alex is very active in the community. Over the years he has been involved with a variety of organizations including Treasurer for Rotary, Future Corp (formerly Community Futures), St. John Ambulance, BNI (Business Network Int.) and CAFA (Canadian Association of Farm Advisors). On a more personal note, Alex has a love affair with hockey, particularly the Vancouver Canucks. In the day following a Canuck victory Alex is noticeably more cheerful than a day following a Canuck defeat.

Tammy Leslie, C.G.A., C.A.

Tammy Leslie is the newest partner of the APL firm, having received her CA in the summer of 2009. A favourite part of her job is helping her client’s overcome the Income Tax Act and all of it’s resulting complications. She would happily spend hours researching a tax problem or situation for a client just to learn the answer. Explaining it in terms a client can understand is always one of her goals and she works very hard to achieve this.

Tammy was born and raised on the West Coast. Her family lived in a logging camp up Indian Arm when she was born and moved to various logging communities on the West Coast including Courtenay and Oyster River on Vancouver Island. Her family also spent over two years living in a logging camp at the top of Toba Inlet eventually settling in Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast.

In high school Tammy always found Math was her strongest subject and Algebra just seemed to make sense to her so an accounting career was an easy choice. Tammy attended Capilano College in North Vancouver, BC graduating in 1985 as class valedictorian for Business Management Diploma. It was during this time that she fell in love with accounting, and specifically, The Tax Act. After college she returned to Sechelt and commenced her first job in public practice working for Cameron & Associates CGA for the next 15 years and earned her CGA in 1989 while working there.

Tammy worked for several public practice firms in Nanaimo before pursuing her goal of becoming an owner in a public practice. In 2006, she obtained a position as a senior manager at Atchison Palmer Chartered Accountants in Duncan. Not satisfied to hold just one accounting designation, Tammy went back to school to obtain her Chartered Accountant’s designation.The whole family (and most of the neighbourhood) cheered when she found out she had passed the 3 day Uniform final exam. This opened the door for her partnership in the firm that now bears her name: Atchison Palmer Leslie Chartered Accountants.

Tammy lives with her family at Yellowpoint, in Ladysmith. When not at the office, Tammy spends her time riding horses with her fellow horse lovers, driving her two old camaro’s during drag race season and training and teaching at the local Taekwondo School in Ladysmith. She can also be found driving her two children to various activities like hockey, highland dance and baseball.

Les Atchison, C.A.

Les Atchison has been a life long resident of the Cowichan Valley. As a child he lived in Camp Six (Caycuse) until his parents moved to Duncan after his father's life threatening injury in the woods as a high rigger. Les received his CA designation in 1966 and was a partner in the CA firm of Hill Atchison Hancock & Co. He left the firm to pursue other business interests. This endeavour led to the establishment of multiple sales outlets across Western Canada and involved travel to China searching out suppliers.

Les re-established an accounting practice in Duncan in 1984. The firm took on a partner, Alex Palmer, in 1997. In August of 2009, Les sold his interest in the firm although he still continues to work with clients at Atchison Palmer Leslie Chartered Accountants.

Les has a long and strong history of giving back to the community. He was President of the Duncan Chamber of Commerce (1970), The Duncan Zenith Gyro Club (1972) and Cowichan Golf & Country Club (1985-1990). Les also served on the BC Institute of Chartered Accountants Public Practice Committee and chaired their sub-committee on Indian Band (First Nations) audit procedures for CA's throughout Canada (1970 - 1973). This was the first committee of its kind established by any of the provincial Chartered Accountant Institutes.

Les was appointed by the BC Cabinet to serve on the Board of Directors for the BC Pavillion Corp. (1993 - 1998) chairing the Audit & Finance Committee serving on the corporation's Executive Committee. During this period of time the operating subsidies from the province decreased from over $5 million to less than $1 million per annum while the corporation continued to provide measurable economic benefits to the province of over $450 million dollars per year to the Province of British Columbia.

Les is the author of local newspaper articles on taxation "Taxing Matters" and is a strong advocate of income tax reform of the Canadian tax system. Les has over 30 years of extensive accounting experience that supports his specialized interest in taxation issues.