Section 1 – Welcome
The Honourable Diane Lebouthillier
Minister of National Revenue
Canada Revenue Agency
7th Floor
555 Mackenzie Avenue
Ottawa ON K1A 0L5
Dear Minister:
On behalf of the over 42,000 employees of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), we would like to extend to you a warm welcome and congratulate you on your appointment as the Minister of National Revenue. Our management team is eager to discuss the new government's electoral commitments that relate to the CRA. We are also looking forward to learning about your interests and priorities and how the Agency can best support you as our new Minister.
The Prime Minister's specific expectations will be set out in a mandate letter to you, which will provide direction on our forward agenda and how we will be working together.
The coming weeks promise to be very busy. Much will depend on when Parliament is recalled, the Speech from the Throne and the timing and content of a possible fall fiscal and economic statement. Work on the next year's budget is typically launched through a fall call letter from the Minister of Finance. For the CRA, this involves collaboration with Finance Canada to implement tax and benefit changes flowing from the government's electoral commitments, revenue generation proposals, and Agency spending.
The new government's electoral platform contains a number of proposals to improve services to taxpayers and benefit recipients, to modernize the rules for charities, and to tackle international tax evasion. The Prime Minister has also indicated that he intends to move quickly with the reduction in taxes for the middle class. We look forward to working with you to move all of these proposals forward so that we are well positioned for Parliament's return and the upcoming 2016 federal budget.
To help ensure a successful transition into your new role as our Minister, our staff has prepared a briefing package that provides an initial orientation to the Agency. The package provides an overview of Agency operations and includes a synopsis of the major issues and challenges currently facing the Agency. It also outlines how the Agency is governed and organized, and contains biographies on the members of Agency's Board of Management, the Ombudsman, and key members of our senior management team.
Based on your availability, we would like to sit down with you as soon as possible to map out a schedule of initial briefing sessions to begin the process of introducing you to the Agency. We have attached a proposed briefing plan for your consideration. As well, at your earliest convenience we would like to make arrangements for you to meet with our senior management team.
Once Parliament resumes, we would like to suggest the establishment of regular weekly briefings, where we would deal with three to five issues. It is our hope that these meetings will foster a strong working relationship. In addition, we would also like to propose regular weekly meetings with your office to help them stay abreast of current and emerging issues.
To facilitate the logistics of your transition, we have put in place a dedicated team to help with the establishment of your new offices. This team includes Ms. Adrianna McGillivray, the Agency assistant assigned to your office, and
Ms. Genevieve Binet, the Commissioner's Chief of Staff. We have attached their contact information for your reference. They will provide any assistance you require and ensure your office quickly secures any supplies and equipment they may require, including computers, copiers, printers and Blackberries. We have also identified CRA employees who are ready to step into Minister's Office positions on a temporary basis while you are staffing up. I have also included my personal contact information and that of Mr. John Ossowski, our Deputy Commissioner. If you have any questions, problems or concerns, please feel free to contact either of us at any time.
The Agency's Strategic Priorities
With 82 offices across Canada, the CRA is one of the largest federal organizations and our activities touch the lives of Canadians on a daily basis. The Agency is mandated to administer tax, benefits, and other programs for governments across Canada. These activities provide the government with the revenue needed to deliver the essential services to Canadians that help lay the foundation for continued economic growth. We also work in partnership with the provinces and territories to collect revenues and deliver benefit programs on their behalf. Last year, the Agency processed over $469 billion in taxes and duties, dealt with over 31 million individual and corporate taxpayers, and issued almost $22 billion in benefit payments to approximately 12 million recipients.
The Agency is focused on the following five strategic priorities and we look forward to advancing these priorities with your support.
- Service – We strive to make it easier for taxpayers to meet their tax obligations. We provide multiple service channels to respond to a wide range of client service needs. The Agency is working to improve the service experience of taxpayers and benefit recipients.
- Compliance – We address serious and deliberate non‐compliance with timely and targeted compliance enforcement actions. We are increasing our use of advanced analytics and graduated compliance interventions to resolve non-compliance issues, with a focus on serious cases of tax avoidance and evasion.
- Integrity and Security – We value the trust that Canadians place in our Agency. We have a strong corporate culture that places a high value on integrity and the protection and safeguarding of taxpayer information. Our centralized security management and sophisticated security infrastructure ensures taxpayer information is well protected.
- Innovation – We support an innovative environment that allows us to improve our service to Canadians and taxpayer compliance. This year we launched a mobile app that allows taxpayers to access their tax information from a mobile device. We have also created the Accelerated Business Solutions Lab to help deliver on Agency priorities, using advanced data analytics and behavioural economics techniques.
- Our People – We manage our workforce through strategic recruitment, ongoing employee development, and effective succession planning strategies. We are modernizing our human resources management in our headquarters operations and in all of our five regions.
Once again, congratulations on your new appointment, and we look forward to working with you and your team in the days and weeks ahead.
Sincerely,
Andrew Treusch
Commissioner
John Ossowski
Deputy Commissioner
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